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Evolution in casting a longer shadow than previously thought, scientists report in a new paper published the week of Aug. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . Smithsonian scientists and colleagues looked at eelgrass communities—the basis of many coastal marine food webs along the north Atlantic and Pacific coasts—and found that their ancient genetic history can play a more powerful role than the current environment in determining their size, structure, and who they are. live in it. And this could have implications for how well eelgrass adapts to threats like climate change. About half a million years ago, when the world was warmer, some eelgrass plants made the arduous journey from their homes in the Pacific to the Atlantic. Not all plants are hardy enough to travel across the North Pole. For those who succeeded, a series of ice ages during the Pleistocene Epoch further influenced how far they could spread. That millennial struggle left a lasting imprint in their DNA...

Skeletal muscles are an important part of your musculoskeletal system. They serve a variety of functions. Among the many functions performed by skeletal muscles, one of them is maintaining our posture. On Earth, the musculoskeletal system must support the body’s weight, and the bones and postural muscles are permanently burdened by gravity. But what happens to these muscles when they have no gravity to resist? This question is a topic of interest to many scientists. Recently, a team of scientists from Japan set out to find the answer. They study the response of neuromuscular properties to gravitational unloading and share research-based insights into how astronauts can avoid neuromuscular problems during extended spaceflight. The group explored how the morphological, functional and metabolic properties of the neuromuscular system adapt to reduced anti-gravity activity. Using human and rodent simulation models, they first investigated how afferent and efferent motoneuron acti...

Immunotherapy, such as immune checkpoint inhibitors, has changed the treatment of advanced cancers. Unlike chemotherapy which kills cancer cells, these drugs help the immune system to find and destroy the cancer cells themselves. Unfortunately, only a subset of patients respond to immune checkpoint inhibitors in the long term; and these treatments can be expensive and with side effects. Researchers have developed a two-step approach using whole-exome sequencing to target genes and pathways that predict whether cancer patients will respond to immunotherapy. Studies published in Nature Communication and conducted by researchers at New York University, Weill Cornell Medicine, and the New York Genome Center, illustrates how using whole-exome sequencing can better predict treatment response than current laboratory tests. “Can we better predict who will benefit from immunotherapy? Scientists have developed a variety of biomarkers that help anticipate immunotherapy treatment respons...