March 2024 Volume 20, Issue 2

Volume 20, Issue 2 | March 2024
March 2024
In this Issue
Editors Insight

Don’t sleep on storytelling in science
The best scientific presentations are not just about the science. The delivery matters too.Cancer

Cracking the cancer-neuroscience connection
Cancer anywhere in the body can change brain activity, and brain activity can drive cancer growth. These surprising discoveries are leading to new treatments.Dermatology

Fighting frostbite with antifreeze
Munia Ganguli harnessed cryopreservative chemicals to develop a topical cream that could prevent skin injury from the cold.
Synthetic melanin accelerates wound healing
A dermatologist and a nanomaterials scientist teamed up to develop synthetic particles to accelerate tissue repair in damaged skin.
A melanoma subtype emerges from the shadows
An understudied melanoma arises without sun exposure, but researchers are beginning to shed light on this challenging form of skin cancer.Antibody Drugs

Putting out a fire in the brain
A new antibody drug should improve treatment of a rare autoimmune encephalitis.
Recombinant polyclonal antibodies for viral diseases
Viral diseases like hepatitis don’t have many successful treatments available, so scientists are engineering antibodies to try and change that.Editor's Focus

Science Milestone: The history of the HPV Vaccine
In the 1930s, HPV wasn’t on the radar for most scientists.Four decades passed before anyone connected HPV with cervical, penile, or anal cancer, and it took even longer before scientists developed a prophylactic vaccine.Precision Medicine

Customizing mRNA vaccines for cancer
Researchers use mRNA to create cancer vaccines that are personalized to each individual’s unique tumor.
Propelling pain research forward with human tissues
Pain research has traditionally relied on animal models. Theodore Price studies human tissues to better understand pain disorders across age and sex.
Cell-free DNA may guide rheumatoid arthritis treatment
Researchers use cell-free DNA circulating in the blood of patients with rheumatoid arthritis to match them with the most effective drugs.
Tracing Alzheimer’s disease back to development
By watching brain organoids develop, researchers observed surprising abnormalities caused by mutations in a gene related to early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.Microbiology

Bacterial warriors fight mosquito-borne diseases
Scientists weaponize the symbiotic bacteria in mosquitoes against the deadly diseases they transmit.
Treating antibiotic resistant infections with amoeba
Many species of amoebae naturally bust open biofilms to eat the bacteria inside. Now, scientists are mining these microbial predators for new antibiotics.
Finding nonantibiotic solutions to resistant UTI
One of the most common bacterial infections, urinary tract infections, may have promising new therapeutics on the way.
A live bacteria treatment for acne
Microbiome researcher Sarah Lebeer studies how beneficial bacteria can help treat inflammatory skin conditions such as acne and atopic dermatitis.

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