My sixth installment of interesting research papers that I have read over the past few weeks and would like to share with my community.

Here, Audrey Chagnot and Axel Montagne discuss the structural and functional features of the blood–brain barrier and the association of its disruption with various pathologies.

We here introduce a novel bioreducible polymer-based gene delivery platform enabling widespread transgene expression in multiple brain regions with therapeutic relevance following intracranial convection-enhanced delivery. Our bioreducible nanoparticles provide markedly enhanced gene delivery efficacy in vitro and in vivo compared to nonbiodegradable nanoparticles primarily due to the ability to release gene payloads preferentially inside cells. Remarkably, our platform exhibits competitive gene delivery efficacy in a neuron-rich brain region compared to a viral vector under previous and current clinical investigations with demonstrated positive outcomes. Thus, our platform may serve as an attractive alternative for the intracranial gene therapy of neurological disorders.

With the growing threat of antibiotic resistance, unconventional approaches to antimicrobial discovery are needed. Here, the authors present a peptide topology that mimics virus architecture and assembles into antimicrobial capsids that disrupt bacterial membranes upon contact.

Note: this content is also available on my website at https://logancollinsblog.com/2025/05/16/notes-on-ultrasound-physics/

In brief, Santos-Pujol and colleagues characterize the multiomics landscape of the human with the most extreme longevity. The study enables the association of advantageous genetic variants, an engaged...

My fifth installment of interesting research papers that I have read over the past few weeks and would like to share with my community.

We introduce a two-pronged strategy comprising focused ultrasound (FUS)-mediated blood–brain barrier (BBB) opening and long-circulating biodegradable nanoparticles (NPs) for systemic delivery of nucle...

Lithium has an essential role in the brain and is deficient early in Alzheimer’s disease, which can be recapitulated in mice and treated with a novel lithium salt that restores the physiological level.

The complexity of vocal communication in some primates, whales and birds might approach that of human language.

Intravascular electroencephalography (ivEEG) using micro-intravascular electrodes was developed. Cortical-vein ivEEG showed a higher signal-to-noise ratio and finer spatial resolution of somatosensor....

By combining bioorthogonal metabolic labelling and resolution enhancement through sequential imaging of DNA barcodes, the molecular organization of individual sugars in the native glycocalyx has been ...

JUPITER, the European Union’s new exascale supercomputer, is 100% powered by renewable energy. What will researchers use it for?

Climate change, changing migration patterns, and our agriculture system have created a perfect environment for fungal pathogens to thrive.

A new suggestion that complexity increases over time, not just in living organisms but in the nonliving world, promises to rewrite notions of time and evolution.

My fourth installment of interesting research papers that I have read over the past few weeks and would like to share with my community.

Fluorescent dyes that are bright, stable, small, and biocompatible are needed for high-sensitivity two-photon imaging, but the combination of these traits has been elusive. We identified a class of sq...

A detailed conformational analysis of N-substituted bispidines has been performed to determine the factors governing the restricted rotational motion induced by the substituents. This investigation co...

Receptor-mediated transcytosis across the blood–brain barrier (BBB) may be a useful way to transport therapeutics into the brain. Here we report th...