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Colorectal tumors use mitochondrial complex II to stockpile iron, but eliminating it causes cell death
Scientists know that colorectal cancer cells require large amounts of iron and that as cancer becomes more aggressive, the cells have even higher amounts of iron. Normal cells with high levels of iron would undergo a type of iron-related cell death called ferroptosis. But in cancer cells, the iron continues to accumulate well beyond normal levels without succumbing to expected cell death processes.
Researchers from the University of Michigan Health Rogel Cancer Center have now discovered a key metabolic pathway that allows colorectal cancer cells to accumulate large quantities of iron. Blocking that pathway reduced iron levels and caused the cancer cells to die.
In this new study, published in Cell Metabolism, researchers started by looking at the known pathways involved in ferroptosis, assuming something in this process was awry. But knocking out these typical ferroptotic enzymes had no impact on tumor growth. So they dug deeper into mitochondrial metabolism.
Quantum sensor overcomes major obstacle in search for dark matter and gravitational waves
A prototype quantum sensor developed by researchers at Imperial has demonstrated for the first time that a key principle behind next-generation quantum detectors can work under realistic conditions.
The study shows how comparing two long-baseline atom interferometers, instruments that use lasers to precisely measure the behavior of atoms, allows experimental noise to be effectively canceled.
This enables signals to be recovered even when individual measurements are overwhelmed and opens the door to searches for gravitational waves from the early universe and signatures of exotic forms of dark matter.
How Many Elementary Particles Are There, Really?
Plausible answers range from 17 to — in all seriousness — 995.5.
Penrose vs EWOG: Consciousness and Quantum Collapse
Consciousness beyond penrose quantum microtubules?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_android&rcm=ACoAADcXNX8BNm6vE2wHF7V91czmcuYXcuPHhY4.
🧠⚛️ Beyond Penrose: Can Consciousness Be Derived from Geometry? For more than 30 years, Roger Penrose and Stuart Hameroff proposed that consciousness emerges through Objective Reduction (OR) inside neuronal microtubules. Penrose’s key equation is remarkably simple: τ_OR = ℏ / E_G where: τ_OR = collapse time ℏ = reduced Planck constant E_G = gravitational self-energy of the spacetime superposition The idea is: 🌌 Spacetime superposition ⟶ Gravitational instability ⟶ Wavefunction collapse ⟶ Conscious event But a major question remained: ❓ What is the mathematical mechanism that actually causes collapse? The EWOG framework attempts to provide one.
AI model proves to be a heavyweight in tumor assessment: Mesothelioma patients and physicians benefit
Physicians and researchers at the Netherlands Cancer Institute have developed an AI model that outperforms physicians in evaluating treatment response in pleural mesothelioma. Far more accurate than the current international standard criteria (RECIST), the model provides patients with greater certainty and tailored treatments. It changes how physicians assess tumors and could accelerate the development of new treatments by making clinical trials more reliable and efficient.
Physicians evaluate treatment response by measuring tumor growth. The current diameter-based RECIST criteria are of limited use for pleural mesothelioma because this cancer type grows in a thin, irregular layer along the lung wall. Where, then, do you measure the diameter to determine whether the therapy is working? This leads to uncertainty and frustration among patients and physicians.
AI experts, radiologists and pulmonologists from the Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI) have now solved this problem. Together, they developed the AI model ARTIMES, which can measure the entire volume of a tumor and compare it with previous scans.
Unreal Engine 6 Will Combine UEFN and UE Into a “Unified Engine”
Epic Games has shared its vision for Unreal Engine 6, outlining plans to unify Unreal Engine and UEFN while expanding creator workflows, scalability, and online ecosystems.
Building Brains: The Molecular Logic of Neural Circuits
Thomas M. Jessel, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, explores the human brain, the sophisticated product of 500 million years of vertebrate evolution, assembled during just nine months of embryonic development. The functions encoded by its trillion nerve cells direct all human behavior. Yet the brain is a biological organ made from the same building blocks as skin, liver and lung. How does the brain acquire its remarkable computational power? Answers lie in the details of its construction — the cellular and molecular mechanisms that drive the formation of thousands of neural circuits, each wired for a specific behavior.
Developing brain cells routinely repair severe DNA damage during migration
Newborn nerve cells must squeeze through crowded, narrow spaces-through dense tissue, past other cells, between fibers-to reach the areas where they form neural circuits in the brain cortex.
In a new study published in Nature, researchers at Kyoto University’s Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (WPI-iCeMS) and their collaborators report that this journey causes widespread DNA damage in neurons, resulting in double-strand breaks where both strands of the double helix are completely severed. While this is the most severe type of DNA damage-capable of causing mutations and cell death-the team surprisingly found that it is a normal, routine feature of brain cortex formation, and a healthy brain quickly repairs it before harm occurs.
“The developing brain appears to have evolved to tolerate and repair the neuronal damage efficiently,” says Professor Mineko Kengaku, of WPI-iCeMS, who led the study. “But understanding the limits of that tolerance-and what happens when repair is incomplete-brings us closer to understanding a range of neurological conditions.”