C4Katsu

José Paiva

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Developing a Heart

During embryo development 'making' a heart requires a fine balance of factors stimulating or suppressing different cell types at the right time in the right place. This study in zebrafish defines the equilibrium required of two transcription factors, Nr2f1a and Isl1, to correctly drive differentiation from progenitor cells and maintain the identities of three heart cell types – pacemaker cardiomyocytes, atrial cardiomyocytes and epicardial cells

Read the published research article here

Image from work by Kendall E. Martin and colleagues

Molecular Cardiovascular Biology Division and Heart Institute, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH, USA

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

Published in Development, June 2026

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The Leading Edge

When there’s resistance to progress, sometimes you have to push a little harder. New research explores how cells drive their edges forward as they migrate, extending protrusions called lamellipodia. These are powered by branching networks of actin fibres, built by a protein machine called the Arp2/3 complex. Researchers watched cells under different physical conditions to ask what makes this actin network denser at the leading edge. They saw cells form strong, dense networks when they could grip a structured surface. Additionally, a similar effect appeared when the surrounding liquid was made more viscous, suggesting that mechanical resistance itself can boost the actin machinery that helps cells move (pictured, cells at 0 and 60 minutes in normal liquid, top, and extra-viscous liquid, bottom, with Arp2/3 in pink and cell outlines tracked over time, right). This advances our understanding of cell movement, fundamental to wound repair, immunity, and cancer.

Written by Anthony Lewis

Image from work by Mitchell T. Butler and colleagues

UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

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

Published in bioRxiv, March 2026 (not peer reviewed)

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Getting the Message

Brain cells (neurons) communicate at synapses – junctions where chemical messages called neurotransmitters are fired towards receptors on neurons across the gap. In this electron micrograph, a slice through a mouse’s brain, we see tiny bags (called vesicles) of neurotransmitters (circular structures at the top) ready to flood into the synapse (diagonal channel) towards the waiting receptors (dark oval) on the other side. Researchers examine images like this to investigate how synapses are affected by neurodegenerative diseases, or genetic mutations. In this particular brain region, the hippocampus, losing a protein called importin β1, involved in readying the vesicles, reduces the neuronal chatter. This could affect learning and memory in the hippocampus of mice and humans alike.

Written by John Ankers

Image from work by Philip A. Freund and Nicolas Panayotis, and colleagues

Department of Biomolecular Sciences and Department of Molecular Neuroscience, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel

Image contributed and copyright held by Philip Freund

Research published in Science Signaling, January 2026

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Road to the Milky Way

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Scorpion Tail and the Bubble

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Sigh...

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Destructive Duo

The yeast Candida albicans (turquoise) and the bacterium Enterococcus faecalis (purple) are two microorganisms that generally live harmoniously inside the human body. Sometimes, E. faecalis has a suppressive effect on the yeast, but other times, these two bugs form a dastardly alliance that results in destructive infections. Scientists are therefore trying to understand how the same pair of organisms can have such different relationships. New research indicates that the particular strain of E. faecalis determines the outcome. It turns out that only bacteria that produce a toxin called cytolysin, which destroys host cells, exacerbates infections. The connection of E. faecalis and C. albicans positions the bacteria in contact with host cells, where its toxin wreaks havoc. Simultaneously, the yeast weakens host cells making them susceptible to the toxin. Knowing which strain of the bacteria is present in an infected patient could therefore inform how aggressive the treatment needs to be.

Written by Ruth Williams

Image from work by Mario Kapitan and colleagues, Ilse D. Jacobsen Lab, Leibniz-HKI

Research Group Microbial Immunology, Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology-Hans Knöll Institute, Jena, Germany

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

Research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS), November 2025

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Reception Rehearsal

IVF can be costly in time, money, and emotional and physical energy for people trying to get pregnant. One major challenge is tailoring strategies for each individual so that every implantation attempt has the best possible chance of success. Researchers have developed a way to assess the recipient's uterine lining outside the body, using an engineered endometrium-on-a-chip made from an individual’s own cells. The platform (pictured, with both multi-layered blood vessels, red, and overall cell structure, green) recreates a realistic miniature of the uterine lining rather than a simple collection of cells. This approach allows clinicians to evaluate how receptive the lining is to embryo implantation and to test potential treatments before giving them. The team also developed a scoring system to quantify endometrial receptivity, enabling truly personalised treatment aimed at improving implantation success and pregnancy outcomes.

Written by Anthony Lewis

Image from work by Gaeun Lee, Yu-Gyeong Lee and Hwa Seon Koo, and colleagues

Department of Life Science, Graduate School, CHA University, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do, Republic of Korea

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

Published in Nature Communications, November 2025

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Cleared to Attack

Using techniques such as single-cell RNA sequencing and high-resolution imaging with tissue clearing, this study in mice identifies a nerve subset called vagal sensory neurons (shown in magenta in this cleared mouse heart) that increase ventricular innervation in the heart after a heart attack (myocardial infarction). These neurons are revealed as part of a heart-brain neuroimmune loop that presents possible targets for MI therapies

Read the published research article here

Still from video from work by Saurabh Yadav and Van K. Ninh, and colleagues

Department of Neurobiology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

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

Published in Cell, January 2026

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Villain Turned Hero

At the end of the film, it transpires the villain was trying to help all along, the true culprit lurking elsewhere. Such is the twist in the study of the protein HIF2α, once thought to be a driver of the childhood nerve cell cancer neuroblastoma, but now revealed to be a tumour suppressor. A research team found that high levels of HIF2α sharply reduce the cancer-driving protein MYCN common to many aggressive neuroblastomas. With HIF2α increased, MYCN was rapidly destroyed, cancer cells stopped dividing, tumours grew more slowly in mice, and cells developed into more mature, stable cell types (pictured, neuroblastoma cells with raised HIF2α, red, and a protein associated with mature neurons, green). Patient data also show that high HIF2α is linked to low-risk tumours and better survival, reinforcing the finding that HIF2α is a force for good in childhood cancers, and revealing a new route to potential intervention.

Written by Anthony Lewis

Image from work by Juan Yuan & Subhamita Maitra, and colleagues

Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

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

Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS), October 2025

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