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Researchers at ETH Zurich are utilising artificial intelligence to analyse the behaviour of laboratory mice more efficiently and reduce the number of animals in experiments. There is one specific task that stress researchers who conduct animal experiments need to be particularly skilled at. This also applies to researchers who want to improve the conditions in which laboratory animals are kept.

Scientists at EPFL have advanced their NeuroMechFly model, simulating fruit fly movement in the real world. With integrated vision and smell, it helps us understand brain-body coordination, setting a path for neuroengineering's role in robotics and AI. All animals, large or small, have to move at an incredible precision to interact with the world.

Two conflicting memories can both be activated in a worm's brain, even if only one memory actively drives the animal's behaviour, finds a new study by UCL researchers. In the paper published in Current Biology , the researchers showed how an animal's sex drive can at times outweigh the need to eat when determining behaviour, as they investigated what happens when a worm smells an odour that has been linked to both good experiences (mating) and bad experiences (starvation).

The ageing and failure of cells that occurs when the liver is damaged can spread to other organs, suggests a new study in mice and humans from researchers at UCL, the University of Edinburgh and the CRUK Scotland Institute. In the study, published in Nature Cell Biology , scientists demonstrate for the first time that the deterioration of cells in a damaged liver can activate a process associated with ageing and impaired function, which then transmits to otherwise healthy organs elsewhere in the body.

The seeds of maritime pines remember the temperatures they experienced during early development. This memory persists in young trees for at least two years after germination. The above discovery was made by researchers at INRAE, CEA, FCBA, the University of Orléans, the University of Perpignan, and the University of Lisbon.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have combined two gene editing methods. This enables them to quickly investigate the significance of many genetic mutations involved in the development and treatment of cancer. In recent years, scientists have created a range of new methods based on CRISPR-Cas technology for precisely editing the genetic material of living organisms.

The findings suggest that biochemical and physical effects of exercise could help heal nerves. There's no doubt that exercise does a body good. Regular activity not only strengthens muscles but can bolster our bones, blood vessels, and immune system. Now, MIT engineers have found that exercise can also have benefits at the level of individual neurons.

University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers targeting a group of hereditary neurodegenerative diseases have found success using a gene therapy treatment in an animal model. The approach, which uses CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing technology, offers a unique and promising strategy that could one day treat rare but debilitating motor neuron diseases in humans.

Plant breeders, aiming to develop resilient and high-quality crops, often cross plants from different species to transfer desirable traits. However, they frequently encounter a major obstacle: hybrid seed failure. This reproductive barrier often prevents closely related species from producing viable seeds.

Research team at Freie Universität Berlin discovers unexpected differences in aging bacterial cells Surprising findings on bacterial aging have emerged from a study carried out by a team of researchers led by the biologist Dr. Ulrich Steiner at Freie Universität Berlin. In a new paper published in Science Advances the team demonstrated that even genetically identical bacterial cells living in the same environment react differently to the aging process and that changes occur at different rates within different regions of the cell.

Università della Svizzera italiana (USI) contributes to research on sleep and related issues through the work and publications of Prof. Emiliano Albanese, Full Professor at the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences at USI, and Prof. Mauro Manconi, Full Professor of the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences at USI.

Researchers at the Medical University of Vienna and the Medical University of Innsbruck discovered that SARS-CoV-2 hijacks three important host proteins that dampen the activity of the complement system, a key component of early antiviral immunity. This significantly impairs viral clearance which may affect the course of both acute COVID-19 infections and post-COVID-19 sequelae.

An international team of researchers, including Dr Peter Etchells from our Department of Biosciences, have published new research which brings to light new discoveries in the development and understanding of stem cells. The new study, published by the journal Science, saw researchers from Durham, University of Helsinki and Utrecht University collaborate to identify the key components required to control the balance of stem cells in plants.

Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in men worldwide. Despite medical advances in recent years, this type of tumour is still responsible for one in eight male cancer deaths in Austria alone. An international research team led by MedUni Vienna has now investigated a new strategy for the development of treatment options that not only slow tumour growth, but also stimulate the immune system to combat tumour cells.

B-1 immune cells can recognize all sorts of viruses, Yale researchers find. Mimicking them may enable a pan-virus treatment that can address many virus types. After viruses infected our evolutionary ancestors, bits of viral DNA lodged themselves into their genomes - and we still carry around genetic remnants of those viruses now.

Neuroscientists at UCL have discovered brain cells that form multiple coordinate systems to tell us "where we are" in a sequence of behaviours, in a new study in mice. These cells can play out different sequences of actions, just like a music box can be configured to play different sequences of tones.

Motion illusion overrides compensatory mechanism for eye movements The visual perception of optical stimuli demands high performance from the brain. Every second, the eyes absorb more than ten million pieces of information and transmit them to the brain via thousands of nerve fibres. This leads us to perceive the world as stable, even though we are constantly moving our eyes.

A new study led by Yale geneticists provides a long-needed tool to determine which mutations in the mitochondrial genome cause disease. Geneticists looking inside the nuclear genome for mutations that contribute to disease have long relied on a principal known as constraint modeling, which allows researchers to assess the degree of selective pressure that leads to the purging of certain gene variants.

By sidestepping the need for costly interventions, a new method could potentially reveal gene regulatory programs, paving the way for targeted treatments. By studying changes in gene expression, researchers learn how cells function at a molecular level, which could help them understand the development of certain diseases.

Researchers at the University of Bern, in collaboration with international partners, have discovered that a 'gene desert' section of the genome plays an important role in the development of the embryo and the heart in both mice and humans. The study provides further evidence for the significance of gene-free DNA segments in gene regulation and offers approaches for early detection of cardiac diseases.