Catch a Virus by Its Tail
A bacterial immune system that alters the tails of phages – a parasitic virus that reproduces itself in bacteria – might help clarify an immunity mechanism in humans, a new...
Sperm Welcome – But Their Mitochondria Must Go
Why do we inherit only maternal mitochondria? A new Weizmann Institute of Science study shows how the paternal versions are deliberately destroyed. Within minutes of fertilisation, the egg of a...
The Constant Gardener Regulating Pain
Weizmann Institute of Science researchers have discovered a protein that prunes nerve endings, regulating sensitivity to pain. The findings could help pave the way toward the development of new chronic...
A Sweet New MRI Method ‘Lights Up’ Pancreatic Cancer
Altered glucose digested by cancer cells helps reveal tumours’ hiding places, new research at the Weizmann Insitute of Science shows. Pancreatic cancer is difficult to detect, in part because the...
Mouths Wide Shut: How Cellular Cleaning Out Is Kept in Check
Weizmann Institute of Science Research has discovered that autophagic organelles actively restrict the size of their mouths – but what does that signify? Autophagy literally means ‘self-eating’ and is a...
From Tip to Tail
Researchers from the University of Michigan and the Weizmann Institute of Science have developed the first-ever complete central nervous system on a chip, emulating that of a human embryo, from...
AI Flexes Its Muscles
Life sciences have never been more digital. To learn more about life processes, biologists are collecting massive quantities of data that computer scientists analyse by means of sophisticated computational models...
Fish under the Influence Reveal How Psychedelics Work
A Weizmann Institute method for tracking the effects of drugs on zebrafish may help develop improved therapies for depression and other mood-related disorders. Psychedelics are a hot topic in labs...
Social Hierarchy: Even for Mice, It’s Complicated
New research from the Weizmann Insitute of Science shows that by studying wild mice in near-natural conditions, different strategies used by females and males in forming social hierarchies were revealed....
Fungus vs. Fungus: Newly Identified Yeast Might Prevent Life-Threatening Fungal Infections
Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science have identified a yeast that might be used to prevent invasive candidiasis, a major cause of death in hospitalised and immunocompromised patients. The...
Toward a Treatment for Huntington’s Disease
Weizmann Institute of Science scientists have discovered two small molecules that can cross the blood-brain barrier in mice, slowing and even reversing the effects of Huntington’s, which is incurable. The...
Proteins without Parents
Using three AI protein prediction tools, a Chinese-Israeli study at the Weizmann Institute of Science uncovered new wrinkles in the folding story of ‘orphan’ proteins. When Weizmann Professors Joel Sussman...
Standing United: When Immune Cells Join Forces, Cancer Therapy Is More Effective
A new kind of immunotherapy, based on crosstalk between different immune cells, could pave the way for innovative treatments of cancer and autoimmune diseases Winning on the battlefield takes a...
Tears without Fears: Sniffing Women’s Tears Reduces Aggression in Men
New research from the Weizmann Institute of Science shows that exposure to tears activates human smell receptors and alters aggression-related circuits in the brain. All land mammals have tear glands...
Why People with Diabetes Are More Prone to Respiratory Risk
A new study from the Weizmann Institute of Science reveals how high blood sugar makes lung infections worse and the findings may lead to a strategy for reversing this susceptibility....
Unlocking a Secret Nerve Cell Regenerator
New research from the Weizmann Institute of Science reveals that a protein facilitating nerve cell repair in the peripheral nervous system might one day point to treatments for neurodegenerative diseases....
Traces of Trauma in the Young Brain – and How to Erase Them
Weizmann Institute of Science researchers have revealed in mice how exposure to trauma in infancy alters the brain; they show that early treatment to reverse these changes is vital for...
Newly Discovered Autoimmune Disorder Disrupts Tooth Enamel Development
A new study lead by the Weizmann Institute of Science shows that celiac disease in children might be associated with sensitivity to a protein abundant in dairy products. The new...
An open-access format for drug discovery is helping design medications against potential viral threats
An international crowd-sourced campaign to discover an anti-COVID-19 drug has created a blueprint for the accelerated, patent-free development of drugs to treat viral threats to humanity. The results of the...
Synthetic human embryo models up to 14 days old grown from stem cells in Weizmann Lab
A research team headed by Professor Jacob Hanna at the Weizmann Institute of Science has created complete models of human embryos from stem cells cultured in the lab – and...