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Volatile organic compounds in the breath reflect gut microbiome changes, offering a quick and non-invasive way to detect biomarkers of diseases like asthma in children. Originally written by Stephanie DeMarco, PhD, for The Nutshell section of The Scientist, on January 22, 2026 I n the depths of the human colon, gut microbes help keep the body healthy by aiding digestion and producing vital metabolites . Disruptions to this bustling microbial community are associated with diseases including asthma and serious infections in  preterm infants . However, quickly identifying the gut microbiome changes that can lead to these conditions in a hospital is not feasible with current methods . “One of the key barriers to integrating our knowledge of the microbiome into clinical care is the time it takes to analyze the data on the microbiome ,” said  Ariel Hernandez-Leyva , an MD/PhD student in gut microbiome researcher  Andrew Kau ’s group at Washington University School of...

Originally published by University of Queensland on January 22, 2026 edited by Lisa Lock , reviewed by Robert Egan University of Queensland researchers say the discovery of a new stress reduction role for a naturally occurring molecule in the body could lead to new drugs and treatment for metabolic disorders and aging .     Proposed model of miR-71 cell-autonomous and cell-non-autonomous dampening of mitochondrial stress responses. Credit: Nature Communications ( 2025 ). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-67198-2 Professor Steven Zuryn, a molecular geneticist from UQ's Queensland Brain Institute , was part of a team that found that very small RNA molecules , called microRNAs , bind to genes and prevent them from being over-activated . MicroRNAs were discovered in C. elegans about 30 years ago and have since been shown to be important in human health and disease . This initial discovery led to the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine . Read more l   ...

Originally written by Matt Wood, University of Chicago , on January 20, 2026   and published in phys.org edited by Stephanie Baum , reviewed by Robert Egan Light is a universal stimulus that influences all living things. Cycles of light and dark help set the biological clocks for organisms ranging from single-celled bacteria to human beings. Some bacteria use photosynthesis to convert sunlight into energy just like plants, but other bacteria sense light for less well-known functions.   Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an antibiotic-resistant bacterium that is known to cause difficult to treat infections in hospitalized patients. Credit: Centers for Disease Control In 2019, Sampriti Mukherjee, Ph.D., and her team at the University of Chicago discovered that far-red light, part of the light spectrum near the infrared range, prevents the formation of biofilms by the human pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa . Biofilms form when communities of bacteria cluster together and att...

Originally written by Krystal Kasal , Phys.org , on January 16, 2026 edited by Gaby Clark , reviewed by Robert Egan Ribosomes, pictured here, synthesize proteins by translating messenger RNA (mRNA) into amino acid chains. Credit: Christoph Burgstedt/Science Photo Library Scientists can peer into cells to get a limited view of their activity using microscopes and other tools. However, cells and the molecular events within them are dynamic , and developmental processes, disease progression and certain molecular cues are still difficult to discern . Ideally, scientists could leverage a system to obtain an unbiased record of a genome's functional output , showing how cells respond to different conditions over time to gain useful insights. Now, it seems a group of researchers may have found a way to do just that . A new study, published in Science , describes a technique to utilize mysterious cellular structures, called "vault particles" to gather up mRNA by encapsulat...

Originally published by Public Library of Science on January 13, 2026 Edited by Sadie Harley , reviewed by Robert Egan Credit: Pixabay /CC0 Public Domain In a new study , terrestrial bacteria-infecting viruses were still able to infect their E. coli hosts in near-weightless "microgravity" conditions aboard the International Space Station , but the dynamics of virus-bacteria interactions differed from those observed on Earth . Phil Huss of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and colleagues present the findings in the open-access journal PLOS Biology . Interactions between phages—viruses that infect bacteria—and their hosts play an integral role in microbial ecosystems. Often described as being in an evolutionary "arms race," bacteria can evolve defenses against phages, while phages develop new ways to thwart defenses . While virus-bacteria interactions have been studied extensively on Earth, microgravity conditions alter bacterial physiology and the ph...