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...
When the Light Particle Saw the Light
A Weizmann Institute study of photons in quantum computing has made a surprising discovery: When photons collide, they create vortices. Vortices are a common physical phenomenon. You find them in...
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...
Beating the Plateau
Weizmann Institute of Science researchers have established absolute chronology for Kingdom of Judah’s Jerusalem. Jerusalem has been inhabited continuously for thousands of years, serving as both a center of religious...
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....
A Hundred Million Suns: The Most Complete Portrait of a Supernova
Humankind has long turned to the skies in search of answers. Accounts of supernovae – exploding stars – go back thousands of years, but while we know today that these...
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...
There’s a New Hypothesis on Your Hypophysis
A new Weizmann Institute of Science study challenges an old dogma regarding the pituitary gland’s embryonic origins and may lead to new insights into growth hormone deficiency and other pituitary...
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...
Evolutionary Safety First
Weizmann Institute of Science researchers have now called for a new kind of test to ensure evolutionary safety of future drugs. How many mutations do we need to improve our...
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....