Molecular Awards

  Disease, injury, and other stress factors harm cells throughout our bodies. Ideally, the damaged cells are cleared by our immune systems through a process called apoptosis. But as we age, our bodies are no longer as effective at removing dysfunctional cells, and this can contribute to a weakened immune system and other less efficient biological processes. An increasing number of researchers are exploring whether learning to harness a cellular state known as senescence — during which damaged cells resist removal by apoptosis, linger, and harm neighboring normal cells — might hold the key to revitalizing aging tissues and increasing healthy, active years of life. Senescent cells are unique in that they eventually stop multiplying but don’t die off when they should. They instead remain and continue to release chemicals that can trigger inflammation. Like the one moldy piece of fruit that corrupts the entire bowl, a relatively small number of senescent cells can persist and spread in...

  A new study suggests that cells preparing to divide can reverse this process and return to a resting state, challenging long-held   beliefs about cell division. If interrupted early in their preparation to divide, cells were able to halt the division process, known as mitosis. The finding, led by researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, and reported July 5, 2023, in  Nature,  could point toward more effective treatments to interrupt the process by which cancer cells divide quickly and spread. When cells receive growth-promoting signals, called mitogens, they enter the cell cycle and synthesize new copies of their DNA in a series of steps that culminate in cell division. Scientists have long thought that the preparatory stage of this cycle includes a point after which cells cannot halt the process. Researchers believed that after this “point of no return,” growth signals are no longer needed to drive cells to div...

  Scientists at the Allen Institute have identified specific cell types in the brain of mice that undergo major changes as they age, along with a specific hot spot where many of those changes occur. The discoveries,  published  in the journal  Nature , could pave the way for future therapies to slow or manage the aging process in the brain. The scientists discovered dozens of specific cell types, mostly  glial cells , known as brain support cells, that underwent significant gene expression changes with age. Those strongly affected included microglia and border-associated macrophages, oligodendrocytes, tanycytes, and ependymal cells. They found that in aging brains, genes associated with inflammation increased in activity while those related to neuronal structure and function decreased. They also discovered a specific hot spot combining both the decrease in neuronal function and the increase in inflammation in the hypothalamus. The most significant gene expres...

  Ascentage Pharma is discovering and developing small molecule drugs for the treatment of cancer that block or degrade protein targets implicated in cancer. It has active clinical programs targeting all three known classes of key apoptosis regulators that restore programmed cell death, a natural process where cells self-destruct in a controlled manner to maintain tissue homeostasis and eliminate damaged or potentially harmful cells. If this process is dysfunctional, however, it can lead to various diseases, especially cancer.  The company’s most advanced candidate is olverembatinib, which is cleared in China for certain patients with chronic myeloid leukemia, and is in phase 3 trials in multiple countries for the same indication, as well as for two other forms of cancer.  The company’s lead candidate is a PARG inhibitor called ETX-19477, which is in a phase 1 trial for solid tumors. PARG – which stands for poly(ADP-ribose) glycohydrolase – is an enzyme that plays an esse...

  Researchers from The University of Manchester and The  Australian National University  (ANU) have developed a novel molecule capable of storing data at extremely low temperatures, comparable to the frigid conditions on the moon’s dark side at night. Their results, published in  Nature , point toward the potential for future data storage devices no larger than a postage stamp, yet capable of holding up to 100 times more information than today’s leading technologies. “The new single-molecule magnet developed by the research team can retain its magnetic memory up to 100 Kelvin, which is about minus 173 degrees  Celsius , or as cold as an evening on the moon,” co-lead author Professor Nicholas Chilton, from the ANU Research School of Chemistry, said. “This is a significant advancement from the previous record of 80 Kelvin, which is around minus 193 degrees Celsius. If perfected, these molecules could pack large amounts of information into tiny spaces. “Pink Floyd’...