Nefarious Signals

Carefully coordinated signals keep trains shooting through underground tunnels. And signals in the seminiferous tubules of the testes help coordinate the production and progression of sperm. Signal failures in the testes may contribute to infertility. To better understand the physiological principles that control seminiferous tubule function, researchers studied the patterns of calcium signalling in three types of tubule lining cells - Sertoli (red in the tubule pictured), peritubular (green) and germ cells. By monitoring calcium concentration the study revealed underlying mechanisms of signal strength and control, pinpointing distinct signal patterns in each cell type. The work showed hormones involved in controlling sperm production can regulate calcium signalling in Sertoli cells. Better understanding of how tubule function is controlled and sperm produced may help reveal the nefarious effects of signal errors that impair testicular function and fertility.

Image made using Leica Microsystems microscopy

Written by Anthony Lewis

Image from work by Justine A. Fischoeder, David Fleck, Jerome Schröer & Christopher Wiesbrock, and colleagues

Department of Chemosensation, Institute for Biology II, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany, Research Training Group 2416 MultiSenses – MultiScales, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

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

Published in PLOS Biology, July 2026

Plumb-ilical Cord

Named from the Greek for sausage, the allantois is a membrane in the yolk sac serving the early developing embryo. Known to give rise to the placenta's vessel cells, in this report its less established role in the development of umbilical cord vessels is confirmed, and for it the vital role of the DLL4 gene identified

Read the published research article here

Image from work by Derek C. Sung and colleagues

Cardiovascular Institute, Department of Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

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

Published in Journal of Clinical Investigation inSIGHT, February 2026

Eating Rubbish

A well-known pathological hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease is the build-up within the brain of protein plaques – like the one pictured (coloured blue). Since these plaques are considered to contribute to the memory loss and cognitive decline associated with the disease, researchers are investigating various ways to promote their removal. One recent idea is treatment with a fatty compound called N-oleoyl-leucine (OLE) – based on the finding that humans with unusually low levels of the OLE-producing enzyme PM20D1 are more prone to developing Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers treated mice daily (via their drinking water) for three months with OLE and found that these mice had significantly better memory performance when compared with control mice. OLE seems to prompt the brain’s microglia (coloured red) into gobbling up plaques. In the test mice, microglial activity was ramped up, the cells homed in on plaques, and plaque numbers were consequently diminished.

Written by Ruth Williams

Image from work by Victoria Pozzi-Ruiz and colleagues

Laboratory of Functional Epi-Genomics of Aging and Alzheimer’s disease, Instituto de Neurociencias, Universidad Miguel Hernández-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (UMH-CSIC), Alicante, Spain

Image originally published as 'Credit must be given to the creator' equating to a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0))

Research published in Cell Death & Disease, April 2026

Entry by PROX1

Lymphatic vessels are not meant grow in the brain, but they are found in brain tumours such as glioblastoma or when there are brain vessel malformations, where they can cause disruption of the blood-brain barrier. In this study, researchers identify aberrant activity of the PROX1 gene in lymphatic vessel cells as a key that allows them to venture into the usually prohibited tissue

Read the published research article here

Image from work by Sara González-Hernández and colleagues

Laboratory of Stem Cell and Neuro-Vascular Biology, Cell and Developmental Biology Center, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA

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

Published in Journal of Clinical Investigation inSIGHT, January 2026

Body-Building Nanog

These two dotty spheres are human embryos. The one on the left is normal. The one on the right has had a gene called NANOG inactivated via base editing – a precision tool that alters individual letters (basepairs) within the DNA code. The inactivation of NANOG has prevented the formation of any epiblast cells (cyan), which would ultimately develop into every cell of the body. The other embryonic cells (purple and yellow), which have remained intact, would contribute to supporting structures such as the placenta and yolk sac. Interestingly, this differs from mouse embryos, where Nanog deletion also affects the supporting structures, highlighting the importance of human embryo studies. This proof-of-principle work supports the use of base editing for studying gene function in human embryos – work that will not only provide valuable insights into early human development and pregnancy loss but potentially lead to improved IVF techniques.

Written by Ruth Williams

Image by K. Harasimov, O.J, Bower & K.K. Niakan: re work by O. J. Bower et al, University of Cambridge Loke Centre for Trophoblast Research

University of Cambridge Loke Centre for Trophoblast Research, Cambridge, UK

Image originally published as 'with credit' equating to a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Research published in Nature, June 2026

Lasting Memories

Neuroscientists have a reasonable understanding of how mammals initially learn and remember things. However, far less is understood about how memories are maintained long-term – in some cases, for a whole lifetime. Most studies into long-term memory have focused on the neurons – the information transmitters of the brain. But recent evidence suggests astrocytes (coloured yellow in this section of mouse brain) – traditionally considered the brain’s support cells – are in fact crucial for ingraining memories. Investigations into the structural support protein ankyrin-2, which has been linked to intellectual disability, revealed that while its deletion from mouse neurons had little or no effect on memory, its deletion from astrocytes did. Mice whose astrocytes lack the protein had significantly impaired recall of a long-term memory (a fear-conditioned response) than did control animals. It’s thought that the protein, in its structural capacity, stabilises established neural circuits to make some experiences unforgettable.

Written by Ruth Williams

Image from work by Hayoung Kim (김하영), Jiwoon Lim (임지운) and Jooyoung Kim (김주영), and colleagues

Center for Memory and Glioscience, Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Daejeon, Republic of Korea

Image originally published as 'Attribution Required' – hence here with as Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Research published in Nature Communications, July 2026

Micromanagers

There's a population of cells in our kidneys called renin cells which, although they have a big job, are hard to find (being 0.01% of all kidney cells) by conventional tissue analysis methods. They're responsible for regulating blood pressure by secreting the enzyme renin to change fluid volumes and vessel constriction accordingly. Here, although so rare, renin cell development, situation and interactions with other cells and nerves have been revealed without disrupting the architecture of the kidney. Using techniques including tissue clearing and high-res 3D imaging (renin cells shown in green among the mouse kidney structures highlighted in red), renin cells are found to be the organisers of their local nerve/hormone microenvironment

Read the published research article here

Video from work by Manako Yamaguchi and colleagues

Department of Pediatrics Child Health Research Center, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, VA, USA

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

Published in Journal of Clinical Investigation inSIGHT, July 2026

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