Is the model of early life as a freak occurrence in a disordered, primordial soup of chemicals wrong?

Bat species use different strategies to dampen immune activation in response to viruses.

Researchers detail how viral proteins interact with host RNA to disrupt the cell’s ability to fight back against infection.

The findings may have implications for radiotherapy, a cancer treatment that can cause damage to salivary glands and leave lasting complications.

Scientists seek to combine genome editing with a technique used in chicken breeding to try to bring back lost birds.

Far from being inert fat-storage depots within cells, these lipid-loaded organelles recruit immune proteins and block bacterial growth.

In two independent studies, researchers find that the organelle is responsible for a switch that allows cells to start moving when they’re squeezed.

Genetically engineered cells that overproduce ACE2, the receptor the novel coronavirus uses to enter cells, neutralize infection in vitro and mop up inflammatory cytokines in mice.

The effects seem to be mediated by a reactive oxygen species in the animals’ livers.

The University of Oregon scientist studied the structure and function of chromatin, with the intent of designing new therapeutic tools.

While sick with COVID-19, President Trump is taking an antacid. Doctors have been exploring whether these medicines can treat SARS-CoV-2 infections, and the results are mixed.

Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna reprogrammed the bacterial immune response into one of the most popular tools for genetics and molecular biology.

The results add to mounting evidence of microbes’ roles in tumor growth and point to the possibility of impeding malignancies by inhibiting bacteria.

Understanding this complex and still largely enigmatic process will pave the way for researchers to control the development of new morphologies.

Understanding biology’s software—the rules that enable great plasticity in how cell collectives generate reliable anatomies—is key to advancing tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.

Meet some of the people featured in the September 2020 issue of The Scientist.

The MIT physicist has demonstrated the importance of clusters of RNA polymerase and other transcription mediators in regulating RNA production.

Some critically endangered animals are on the list.

Excess of the inflammatory molecule bradykinin may explain the fluid build-up in the lungs of patients with coronavirus infections. Clinical trials of inhibitors are putting this hypothesis to the test.