For centuries, the process by which the cinchona tree produces its valuable alkaloids, including the life-saving quinine used to treat malaria, was shrouded in mystery. Now, a research team from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, together with colleagues from the University of Georgia, has uncovered the secret. In a new study, the scientists demonstrate how the plant sequentially builds up the complex molecular framework characteristic of quinine. The researchers identified the enzymes responsible for catalyzing the chemical reactions that take place inside the plant. The study opens up new avenues for the sustainable and efficient laboratory production of natural substances such as quinine and related active ingredients.

Two microscopic grains collide and produce a tiny spark. This phenomenon may have provided the energy to kick off life on Earth. But if these solid particles have the same composition, what factor causes the charge to flow in a given direction? In a new study published in Nature, physicists from the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) identify the key factor as environmental carbon-based molecules that adhere to the materials’ surface.

A new interdisciplinary study published in Nature reconstructs over 2,000 years of population history in Argentina’s Uspallata Valley (UV), a southern frontier of Andean farming spread in ancient times, with broader lessons on how agriculture shaped societies and how communities endured crises. By combining ancient human and pathogen genomics with isotopic analyses, archaeology and paleoclimate records–and working in close collaboration with Huarpe Indigenous communities–, the research reveals how local hunter-gatherers adopted agriculture, how more recent intensive maize farmers experienced prolonged stress, and how kinship-based mobility may have helped communities persist through instability. 

AI researchers at Mass General Brigham have two new papers showing that the thymus, an immune system organ long assumed irrelevant after puberty, may actually be a key driver of longevity, disease risk, and response to cancer treatment. In their first study, they used AI to analyze CT scans from more than 27,000 adults, and found inviiduals with high "thymic health" scores had a ~50% lower risk of death, 63% lower cardiovascular mortality, and 36% lower lung cancer risk compared to those with low scores. In a second study of 1,200 cancer patients treated with immunotherapy, the researchers found those with stronger thymic health had a 37% lower risk of cancer progression and a 44% lower risk of death. Together, the findings point to a major role of the thymus in adult health, and its potential as a target for screening and personalized medicine.

Akash Gupta, a research scientist known for developing advanced delivery systems for cancer immunotherapies while working at MIT, will join the University of Houston to develop new platforms for cancer immunotherapies, initially focusing on lung cancer. His recruitment is supported by the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas.