On August 15, 2025, Jayanta bhattacharyathe director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), released a statement announcing a “unified strategy” to align the agency’s funding activities with a newly released list of priorities included in the letter. In his statement, Bhattacharya emphasized how NIH funding, originating from taxpayer dollars, is a finite resource, and…
This webinar will be hosted live and available on-demand Friday, September 26th, 202512:00 PM – 1:00 PM Centuries of unmitigated ecological harm have led to significant losses in biodiversity, species extinction, and ecosystem collapse. To restore some of these losses and buffer against future harm, researchers aim to revive extinct species and rebuild ecological niches….
Scientists have long suspected that human bipedalism is possible thanks to the pelvis’s unique shape. Now, they’ve uncovered the mechanistic and genetic bases of this evolutionary novelty. Image credit:© Istock, Man_Half-tube Humans are the only primates that walk on two legs. Scientists believe that their uniquely shaped pelvis, the bones that connect the spine to…
Pools of water on early planet Earth may have been where the first peptides formed. Image credit:© Istock, Natalia Daroroz Long before dinosaurs munched on leafy greens or photosynthesizing algae soaked up the sun, a lifeless soup of simple molecules floated through the watery and rocky landscape of early planet Earth. Today, complex molecular processes…
Before CRISPR-based methods took center stage in the genome editing field, other bio-inspired tools such as zinc finger nucleases and Cre-lox system recombinases made genomic engineering possible. Some researchers are now looking back to these foundational technologies to improve upon and one-up the latest gene editing techniques. In this episode of The Scientist Speaks, Deanna…
This webinar will be hosted live and available on-demand Thursday, October 9th, 20259:30 AM – 11:00 AM ET Autophagy is a critical cellular process that removes damaged organelles and recycles nutrients to maintain homeostasis. In cancer, autophagy plays a complex role, supporting tumor suppression and growth depending on the context. Understanding how autophagy affects cancer…
For years, researchers considered Alzheimer’s disease (AD) an amyloid beta and neuron-related condition. But having trained as a pathologist, Thomas Montinewho is now a neuropathology researcher at Stanford University, didn’t think that was the whole story. “It was the pathologist in me that kept asking, ‘But where did the brain tissue go?’” he said. “When…
Fast-growing yeast cells and cancer cells have similar amounts of heavy hydrogen atoms in their fat molecules, a feature that could be used to potentially differentiate cancerous and healthy tissue. Image credit:©iStock.com, BlackJack3D Scientists are still trying to understand the molecular details of how cancer cells metabolize and get energy; the details can open new,…
