BPoD

Complicated but Replicated

Malaria-causing parasites Plasmodium parasites have a complicated life – adapted to infecting and replicating in insects, mainly mosquitos, then once passed on by a bite from that insect, infecting and replicating within vertebrates – existing in a number of forms in different tissues of its different hosts. Here, researchers show how plasmodium achieves high-fidelity replication throughout its life history, as a result of proteins SFA1 and SFA2's stabilising role

Read the published research article here

Image from work by Buyuan He and Ilzat Ali, and colleagues

Department of Parasitology, Center of Infectious Diseases, Medical Faculty, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany; Division of Infectious Diseases, Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in The EMBO Journal, July 2026

Here, Hear

Hair cells in our ears wave about in noise, converting sound into mechanical forces that shape messages bound for the brain. But hair cells are fragile – destroyed by some diseases, or after prolonged exposure to loud noise. And once they’re gone, they’re gone for good. Or are they? Here researchers investigate layers of cells in parts of a mouse’s cochlea, highlighting characteristic proteins in hair cells (red) and supporting cells (green). But these lines are blurred – some green cells are also becoming red. Researchers believe blocking an important developmental switch called Notch, triggers transdifferentiation – the changing of some of the supporting cells into new hair cells. Like picking a lock, controlling Notch could be the first step to unlocking regeneration of the cochlea and restoring hearing in mice and humans alike.

Video from work by Lama Khalaily and colleagues

Department of Human Genetics and Computational Medicine, Gray Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences and Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

Video originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in Science Advances, June 2026

Going Through Phases

The mixing of a molecule with one pole that's water-loving and one water-repelling (amphiphilic) with a solvent (such as water) results in a solution that behaves like a solid and a liquid – a lyotropic liquid crystal. Here, physicists uncover details of their behaviour using, Sunset Yellow that can act as a lyotropic liquid crystal, and reveal how it self-assembles into multiple phases, and how phase patterns and sizes are affected by forces – insights for honing their use in targeted drug delivery and biological sensing

Read the published research article here

Video from work by Ana Bensabat and colleagues

School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

Video originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS), July 2026

Fishy Looks

We can learn a lot about our development from similar, simpler processes in very different creatures. Here, researchers look a zebrafish (Danio rerio) in the eye. A high-powered microscope maintains eye contact with the developing fish for over 24 hours, highlighting tiny structures [organelles] called iridosomes, clustered around the iris (red). Each iridosome is like a tiny molecular factory – where reflective guanine crystals (blue) mature, eventually producing beautiful iridescent patterns in the fish skin and eyes. Humans don’t have iridosomes, but we do share other similar organelles involved in shaping and storing important chemicals. Using zebrafish to study this specific type of organelle develops may help to unravel human genetic disorders like Heřmanský–Pudlák syndrome, which can have wide ranging effects including impaired vision.

Written by John Ankers

Video from work by Anna Gorelick-Ashkenazi and colleagues

Department of Molecular Genetics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel

Video originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution – NonCommercial – NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS), April 2026

Ear Defenders

The cells of the inner ear are at risk of damage from certain drugs used to treat bacterial infection (such as gentamicin) and cancer (such as cisplatin) – resulting in hearing and balance loss. Here, organoids – models of the inner ear grown in the lab from induced pluripotent stem cells – are used to study how our hearing cells respond to such drugs and how they might be protected from damage

Read the published research article here

Image from work by Amy W. A. Lucassen and colleagues

OtoBiology Leiden, Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in and on the cover of Disease Models & Mechanisms, June 2026

Under Siege

Most antibiotics tackle bacterial infections by interfering with their living processes. But many bacteria are resistant to common antibiotics, including disease-causing Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa). Here, researchers find a new weakness. Rendered on a computer from an earlier cryo-electron microscopy scan, we see P. aeruginosa‘s cell membrane (shown in shades of blue) which usually protects its fragile machinery. Like siege warfare (but around a billion times smaller) researchers deploy a class of antibiotics called pyocins which can kill bacteria from outside. Pyocins attach to a protein on the surface called BamA, blocking a vital transport channel through the membrane. Without the Bam complex, the cell can’t bring in certain nutrients or expel waste. Despite creating defensive proteins (orange), eventually Pseudomonas aeruginosa dies, suggesting pyocins as a useful weapon in the war against otherwise-resistant bacteria.

Written by John Ankers

Video from work by Fabian Munder and colleagues

Department of Microbiology, Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia

Video originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution – NonCommercial – NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Published in Nature Communications, July 2026

Slowing Wrinkles

Attack from treatment, or being starved of oxygen as they mass and outgrow their blood supply can stress cancer cells, pushing them into an even more abnormal 'giant' state with multiple genome copies and giant nuclei (seen here ringed in yellow in the polyploid giant cancer cells sourced from various tissues). This study finds that the wrinkliness of the nucleus layer called the lamina in these biological behemoths is associated with reduced mechano-sensitivity (response to forces in the tissue) slowing spreading, and it may also slow their ability to multiply

Read the published research article here

Image from work by Samere Abolghasemzade and Ryan Blanchard, and colleagues

Department of Biomedical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in Science Advances, July 2026

Brain Drain

Scientists want to know how the glymphatic system sluices out waste from the central nervous system, acting like a drain for harmful waste. Yet watching the flow of cerebrospinal fluid around the brain is challenging. A new technique called 3D-PAULM combines an advanced form of photoacoustic imaging with ultrasound localisation microscopy to produce super resolution images of cerebrospinal fluid flow patterns. In these mouse brains (pictured from different angles on different rows) 3D-PAULM reveals high fluid flow in brighter regions, with warmer colours showing fluid close to the surface and cooler colours deeper in the tissue. While all three mice are anaesthetised, the flow is much lower in old mice (right) compared to young (left). A more intense form of anaesthesia disrupts cerebrospinal fluid flow, even in young mice (middle), suggesting 3D-PAULM could detect changes in the efficiency of the glymphatic system brought by the environment, ageing or disease.

Written by John Ankers

Image from work by Nanchao Wang and Xinyuan Yu, and colleagues

Duke University, Durham, NC, USA

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Published in Science Advances, June 2026

To Boldly Go

Here, researchers present a magnetic microrobot system designed for delivering cancer-targeting drugs in challenging environments such as our very acidic (pH2)stomach. Demonstrated here in pig stomach, a pH-responsive coating protects the drug cargo during transit and then degrades upon pH change, to release the drug-carrying nanoparticles

Read the published research article here

Video from work by Rujie Sun, Junyoung Kim & Yixuan Leng, and colleagues

Department of Materials, Department of Bioengineering, and Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Imperial College London, London, UK

Video originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in Science Advances, July 2026

Live Wiring

Millennia of evolution have honed the intricate pattern of nerves and neurons throughout the body. But if neurons grow in an entirely novel living structure, can they still organise into functional tissue and influence behaviour? This fundamental question about neural flexibility is being addressed by researchers interested in building living machines: tissue-based robots, research organoids, and engineered biological devices in search and service of novel treatments and better health for all. A team developed tiny living ‘biobots’ from frog embryo tissue, and implanted neural precursor cells (pictured, coloured blue to yellow according to depth within the bot; complete view, left, and with some detail stripped back to reveal neuron-like fibres, right). The implanted cells matured into neurons, extended projections through the bot, and were associated with changes in shape, movement, gene expression, and drug responses, offering clues to how neural tissue might organise and function inside engineered living systems.

Written by Anthony Lewis

Image from work by Haleh Fotowat and colleagues

Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University, Medford, MA, USA

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in Advanced Science, February 2026

Eggs' Essential Pathway

It's known that egg (oocyte) development – in all sexually reproducing animals – relies on a molecular signalling pathway called Wnt/β-catenin, but the details of its role are still being explored. Now, in developing zebrafish, researchers find that Wnt/β-catenin activity rises until eggs reach a certain size, then it rapidly declines. And they reveal the vital function of protein Stn1 in maintaining egg development

Read the published research article here

Image made using Leica Microsystems microscopy

Image from work by Xin Zhang, Yanpeng Zhai and Caixia Wang and colleagues

Key Laboratory of Marine Drugs (Ocean University of China), Chinese Ministry of Education, and School of Medicine and Pharmacy, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, China

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in EMBO Reports, April 2026

Fitness Race

From the moment we’re infected with a virus, the race is on. Our B-lymphocyte cells rush to make intricate antibodies that latch on to proteins called antigens on the pathogen’s surface. Only the best fitting antibody will emerge victorious. B-cells perfect their antibodies inside structures called germinal centres – mutating their DNA, to changing antibody 'designs' and try out different prototypes. Here researchers watch a simplified form of this race in mouse lymph nodes (highlighted in blue). Activating some of the germinal centres (red) with a burst of laser light (turning them green), they follow B-cells using a technique called deep mutational scanning to predict how the antibodies change with each mutation. Similar to evolution, this trial and error eventually finds a champion B-cell with the best fitting antibody to tackle the virus. Such insights might influence vaccines designed to tackle viruses that change their antigens, like HIV.

Written by John Ankers

Image from work by William S. DeWitt, Ashni A. Vora and Tatsuya Araki, and colleagues

Department of Genome Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA; Laboratory of Lymphocyte Dynamics, the Rockefeller University, New York, NY, USA

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in Cell, June 2026

Different Red Islands

In foetuses, white and red blood cells develop in the liver – the process of haematopoiesis – and at birth the bone marrow takes up the mantle. In both situations, red blood cells are nurtured to maturity in niches called erythroblastic islands where they lose their nuclei to maximise oxygen-carrying capacity (mature red cells and platelets are the only cells of the body without a nucleus). Here, mapping the gene activity of these islands in mouse and human foetal liver and bone marrow reveals a different make-up in each species - in mice, macrophages (large white cells of the immune system) play a key role, but not in humans which depend on the adhesion molecule ICAM4

Read the published research article here

Image from work by Xu Han & Kehan Ren, and colleagues

Department of Pathology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in Nature Genetics, July 2026

Heart Check

Any new medicine must not only solve a problem, but avoid causing harm elsewhere in the body. Damaging side effects are a key reason drug development stalls, and heart toxicity is a common pitfall. Researchers hope to identify such drawbacks in pre-clinical tests, but existing models provide a limited approximation of the heart, and there is a universal goal to reduce reliance on animal testing. A team has therefore developed a new ‘heart-on-a-chip’ platform to enable more realistic toxicity testing at an early stage. The system (pictured, with elements separately, left, and together) includes heart muscle (green), structural fibroblasts (cyan), and blood vessel lining cells (red), all derived from a single line of precursor stem cells for consistency. The lining cells helped the platform better reflect the heart’s natural defences against toxicity compared to more simple models, giving researchers a more complete picture before moving to clinical trials in people.

Written by Anthony Lewis

Image from work by Karine Tadevosyan and colleagues

Stem Cell Potency Group, Regenerative Medicine Program, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), L'Hospitalet De Llobregat, Spain

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Published in Advanced Healthcare Materials, February 2026

Travelling Light

This study presents a 3D imaging and analytic pipeline based on light sheet microscopy for tracking cancer spread to new sites and revealing how the malignant cells interact with vessels there. Shown is breast cancer that's travelled to the lung in a mouse model.

Read the published research article here

Image from work by Sabrina M. Lewis and colleagues

Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Parkville, VIC, Australia

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in npi Imaging, November 2025

Access Denied

Influenza virus, shown here coloured red inside lung cells, infects these and other epithelial cells of the respiratory tract to create all the unpleasant symptoms we associate with a bout of flu. Recently, scientists who were investigating how the virus is replicated and mobilised within these cells made a surprising discovery. They inhibited the activity of a particular vesicle [a membrane-coated organelle for moving molecules in and out of cells] trafficking protein, called Rab11B, to see the effect on viral protein transport and found that one of the viral strains they were studying (H3N2) was blocked from entering the cells altogether. The other (H1N1) was not. Until these experiments, it had been presumed that H3N2 and H1N1 entered cells by the same mechanism. While the precise role of Rab11B in H3N2 cellular entry remains to be determined, the findings could lead to new ways for preventing and curtailing infections with that particular strain.

Written by Ruth Williams

Image from work by Allyson H. Turner & Sara A. Jaffrani, and colleagues, Bruce Lab

Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont, USA

Image originally published with no restrictions – hence published here with as Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Research published in Journal of Virology, June 2026

Loophole for Entry

A common route for cancer cell spread or metastasis is via lymphatics – the vessels that connect the body-wide network of lymph tissue, sites of immune response. This report finds entry by the cancer cells into the lympho-vascular system is driven by the balance of TNRC6B/circTNRC6B gene products (an interactive self-degradative loop of TNRC6B protein and a circular product of the TNRC6B gene message); their activity could be a biomarker of prognosis and a treatment target

Read the published research article here

Image from work by Lingjiao Meng, Haotian Wu & Jiaxiang Wu, and colleagues

Fourth Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, Hebei, China

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in Cell Reports, July 2026