Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Ché Pillay @chepillay.bsky.social · 3d

The personal stories of the 3 Nobel Prize winners in Chemistry are so inspiring. Well worth a read: www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemi...

Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2025

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2025 was awarded to Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar M. Yaghi “for the development of metal-organic frameworks.”

www.nobelprize.org

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Reposted by Ché Pillay

Derek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · 25d

Some kinds of biological stress can make cells live longer - such as nutrient starvation. One such mechanism:

Cellular Longevity Through Stress

www.science.org

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Ché Pillay @chepillay.bsky.social · 28d

How awesome that our world produces such brilliant people: www.quantamagazine.org/at-17-hannah...

At 17, Hannah Cairo Solved a Major Math Mystery | Quanta Magazine

After finding the homeschooling life confining, the teen petitioned her way into a graduate class at Berkeley, where she ended up disproving a 40-year-old conjecture.

www.quantamagazine.org

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Ché Pillay @chepillay.bsky.social · Sep 11

This is not my field. But, surely, people who decide to use intermittent fasting had a reason for doing this. Would this not have biased the comparison between the populations?

Ché Pillay @chepillay.bsky.social · Sep 8

I have been invited to give a seminar on our recent work by the South African Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Details below:
Title: “A role for dynamics in the oxidative stress response”
18 September 2025 at 15:00 (SAST)
Zoom link: zoom.us/j/4620290536

Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting

Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise cloud communications.

zoom.us

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Reposted by Ché Pillay

Nature @nature.com · Sep 3

How is this possible?

This ant can lay eggs of two different species, birthed by the same mother

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Reposted by Ché Pillay

Derek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · Sep 2

A condensate-dissolving compound shows some connections to neurodegenerative disease:

A Condensate Dissolver

www.science.org

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Ché Pillay @chepillay.bsky.social · Sep 1

youtu.be/CxVXvFOPIyQ?...

Exposing the Monsanto Conspiracy

YouTube video by Veritasium

youtu.be

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Reposted by Ché Pillay

eLife @elife.bsky.social · Aug 27

How do cells clean up misfolded proteins when they divide?

This study finds that the cleanup crew includes the ER chaperone BiP and the proteasome, and kicks in right as cells finish dividing. Surprisingly, one major cell cycle regulator isn’t involved.
buff.ly/KkxgQCy

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Ché Pillay @chepillay.bsky.social · Aug 25

This was so surprising to me: doi.org/10.1242/dmm..... I didn't know about the actin/MICAL/MsrB redox cycle in deafness. Wow.

MSRB3 antioxidant activity is necessary for inner ear cuticular plate structure and hair bundle integrity

Summary: Our study suggests a protective role for MSRB3 in the maintenance and maturation of mouse stereocilia and hair cells, a conserved mechanism aimed at maintaining actin redox dynamics in these ...

doi.org

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Reposted by Ché Pillay

Derek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · Aug 11

A very interesting (and very thorough) case for Alzheimer’s as (of all things) a disease of lithium deficiency. This one’s worth taking seriously, I believe:

Lithium Deficiency and Alzheimer's Disease

www.science.org

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Reposted by Ché Pillay

Nature @nature.com · Jul 31

This surprisingly relaxing footage is from SIX MILES under the ocean – and it’s the deepest ecosystem yet discovered

440 3.5K 14K

Reposted by Ché Pillay

Derek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · Jul 29

Here’s a small-molecule drug idea that you probably never saw coming:

SSRIs As Cancer Therapy

www.science.org

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Reposted by Ché Pillay

Paul Macklin @mathcancer.bsky.social · Jul 28

Really excited to share our new @cellpress.bsky.social Cell paper with @fertiglab.bsky.social and colleagues. 1/n

www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

@jktgfoundation.bsky.social @itcrtraining.bsky.social @smbmathbiology.bsky.social #mathbio #mathonco @mathonco.bsky.social @deniswirtz.bsky.social

Human interpretable grammar encodes multicellular systems biology models to democratize virtual cell laboratories

We developed a plain text modeling language—a cell behavior hypothesis grammar—to easily build virtual cell models and connect them to data, helping scientists to unlock the hidden dynamics of tissues...

www.cell.com

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Reposted by Ché Pillay

Derek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · Jul 24

We might have been looking at atherosclerosis the wrong way all these years. Is the cause a bacterial metabolite?

A New Cause of Atherosclerosis

www.science.org

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Reposted by Ché Pillay

Michalis Nikolaidis @mg-nikolaidis.bsky.social · Nov 25

Free radicals and antioxidants: appealing to magic

Our short paper argues that molecules cannot be classified as good or evil. Limited evidence supporting the consumption of antioxidants or superfoods and such interventions risk disrupting fundamental redox processes.

www.cell.com/trends/endoc...

Free radicals and antioxidants: appealing to magic

In biology, there are no good or evil molecules. There is limited or no evidence to support the consumption of antioxidants or (super)foods rich in antioxidants, for the intended purpose of an antioxi...

www.cell.com

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Ché Pillay @chepillay.bsky.social · Jul 22

Great idea. Thanks.

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Reposted by Ché Pillay

Michalis Nikolaidis @mg-nikolaidis.bsky.social · Jul 10

A fresh perspective on hydrogen peroxide metabolism during exercise.

In vivo (normoxic), muscle contractions typically cause only minimal increases in H₂O₂ (<10%), whereas in vitro (hyperoxic) assays often show far greater increases (~150–340%).
sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

State of the art in vivo reactive oxygen species measurements in skeletal muscle using fluorescent proteins

Evaluation of the effects of muscle contractions on reactive oxygen species (ROS) concentrations and their intracellular and intraorganelle dynamics i…

sciencedirect.com

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Ché Pillay @chepillay.bsky.social · Jul 8

Yikes

Derek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · Jul 7

If the journals are going to send your manuscript to chatbots to "review" it, you might as well prompt the bots to do the right thing by you, eh?

Tell the Bot to Tell the Bot About the Bot

www.science.org

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Ché Pillay @chepillay.bsky.social · Jul 8

Great talk. Thanks for sharing.

Reposted by Ché Pillay

Helena Cocheme @cochemelab.bsky.social · Jun 27

🎉Excited to share our latest paper, published in Nature Communications!🎉

"Enhancing autophagy by redox regulation extends lifespan in Drosophila"

#redox #metabolism #ageing #Drosophila

@natcomms.nature.com @mrc-lms.bsky.social

doi.org/10.1038/s414...

Enhancing autophagy by redox regulation extends lifespan in Drosophila - Nature Communications

Redox signalling is emerging as an important regulator of metabolism and physiology, which is dysregulated in ageing and disease. Here, the authors show that redox regulation of a key redox sensitive ...

doi.org

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Ché Pillay @chepillay.bsky.social · Jun 30

Happy to share our review paper, "Emerging Trends for the Regulation of Thiol-Based RedoxTranscription Factor Pathways" doi.org/10.1021/acs.... It was fun learning about the really cool science being undertaken by some excellent labs. Thanks, ACS Biochemistry, for the invite.