A new study led by a team of researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center reveals that lymphoma can accelerate the biological aging of the immune system and other tissues, providing new insight into how cancer reshapes the body beyond tumor growth.

The study, published in Cancer Cell, shows that B cell lymphoma rapidly transforms young T cells, which are key immune fighters, into a state resembling those of T cells in much older individuals. These changes included increased inflammation, impaired protein balance and altered iron regulation. The effects were not limited to immune cells. Markers of aging also appeared in the blood vessels, kidneys and intestines.

“Cancer doesn’t just grow in isolation; it has widespread effects on patients. We found that lymphoma alone, without treatment, is enough to provoke systemic signs of aging,” said John Cleveland, Ph.D., senior author and chief scientific officer at Moffitt. “This helps explain why many cancer patients experience symptoms typically associated with aging.”

The findings challenge the long-held belief that accelerated aging in cancer patients is primarily caused by treatments like chemotherapy or radiation. While those therapies are known to age cells, this study shows that the cancer itself can push immune and tissue systems into an aged state.

“Our results also suggest there may be opportunities to reverse some cancer-driven aging effects,” said Rebecca Hesterberg, Ph.D., the study’s lead author and a researcher in Moffitt’s Department of Tumor Microenvironment and Metastasis. “By understanding the biology, we can begin to think about interventions that not only treat the cancer but also protect or even restore healthy immune function.”

Researchers discovered that lymphoma-exposed T cells accumulated excess iron, making them resistant to a type of cell death called ferroptosis. They also exhibited defects in protein quality control, a hallmark of aging. Some of these changes were reversible when tumors were eliminated in animal models, pointing to new therapeutic opportunities.

With the global population aging and cancer risk rising with age, the study underscores the importance of understanding how cancer interacts with aging biology.

A palm-sized device developed by researchers at the University of Waterloo could help save lives and reduce illness by rapidly and inexpensively detecting toxic bacteria in water supplies.

Contamination caused by E. coli, a bacterium commonly found in the gastrointestinal tracts of mammals, causes an estimated 230 deaths and 3 million acute illnesses globally each year, mostly affecting babies and young children, according to a study from the National Institutes of Health.

For their study published in the journal Biosensors and Bioelectronics, the research team set out to help reduce those numbers by building on technology it originally developed to detect the COVID-19 virus during the global pandemic.

“We’re confident our technology could have a significant health impact,” said Dr. Carolyn Ren, a professor of mechanical and mechatronics engineering, and the Canada Research Chair in Microfluidic Technologies at Waterloo.

“Testing shows it is very accurate, both in terms of specificity—the ability to differentiate between E. coli and other bacteria—and sensitivity.”

Costing just $70 to produce, the device includes a gold-plated sensor about the size of a dime paired with a smartphone-size board that contains a small instrument known as a vector network analyzer (VNA).

The sensor is coated with an antibody—a type of protein produced by the immune system—that attracts and binds E. coli to its surface if bacteria are present in a sample of a few drops of water.

When E. coli binds to the antibody, it triggers a shift in the resonance frequency of microwaves emitted by the sensor. That shift is detected and analyzed by the VNA, which determines both the presence and concentration of the bacteria in real time.

The device was tested with only a few drops of water in its reservoir, but Ren said the technology could easily be scaled to meet international E. coli standards that require larger samples.

Current E. coli tests typically involve collecting and transporting water samples to centralized labs, often resulting in delays that can take days and can leave people vulnerable to illness.

Ren said the Waterloo-built device’s rapid results, low cost and portability make it ideal for on-site testing in homes and water treatment plants, and to regularly monitor water bodies for contamination.

Its potential is especially significant in developing countries where people are more vulnerable to E. coli contamination and access to lab-based testing is limited. In a study in sub-Saharan Africa, for example, 71% of household water samples were found to be contaminated.

“Water regulations are strict and it’s difficult to adopt new technology quickly,” said Ren, who is also a member of the Water Institute and the Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology. “We hope our work will inspire the scientific community and the private sector to help make it widely accessible.”

Researchers have gained new insights into an ion channel from algae. These insights could help optogenetics realize its full potential in the future.

Researchers from Bochum and Regensburg have discovered that a light-sensitive ion channel from the alga Guillardia theta possesses two light-activated states. The newly discovered second state ensures that the ion channel can be reopened particularly quickly after it has been closed.

This makes it interesting for optogenetics, a method researchers use to specifically control the activity of neuronal cells using light. The team from Germany around Dr. Kristin Labudda and Associate Professor Carsten Kötting from the Department of Biophysics at Ruhr University Bochum, as well as Professor Till Rudack from the University of Regensburg, has reported their findings in the journal Communications Biology.

Optogenetics with potential use in therapy

In optogenetics, certain neuronal cells are genetically modified to produce light-sensitive proteins from other organisms. The activity of the modified neuronal cells can then be controlled using light. “When light is directed at these proteins, they alter their structure, thereby activating or inhibiting the cells,” explains Rudack.

Researchers have also been experimenting with optogenetics for the treatment of certain diseases for some time. “Optogenetics is a promising new method, for example, for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease,” says Kötting. “It could reactivate damaged neuronal cells in the brain and partially restore motor skills.”

However, there is still a long way to go before the procedure can potentially be established in everyday clinical practice. Therefore, teams around the world are working to better understand light-sensitive proteins and identify optimal candidates for optogenetics.

One well-studied protein is the ion channel GtACR1 from the alga Guillardia theta, a channelrhodopsin, which serves as a light sensor in the alga. When GtACR1 is activated by light, the channel pore opens, allowing negatively charged ions such as chloride to flow through.

Highly efficient ion channel

In the current study, the researchers from Bochum and Regensburg demonstrated why GtACR1 is so efficient. They examined the ion channel using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, which is used to determine the structural states of proteins.

The group demonstrated that GtACR1 has two light-activated states: the well-known ground state and an intermediate stage called the O-intermediate. The ground state is present in the dark.

As with other channelrhodopsins, the normal photocycle starts when the channel is first activated by light. During this cycle, various intermediate stages are passed through, which differ in their structure and ionic conductivity. One of these is the O-intermediate, which precedes the ground state by several seconds.

However, due to the configuration of retinal—the building block that serves as a direct light sensor—the O-intermediate is light-activated in GtACR1, unlike in other channelrhodopsins.

“The second light-activated state we discovered ensures that the channel can be reopened particularly quickly, which significantly increases its ionic conductivity,” explains Labudda. For applications in optogenetics, the higher ionic conductivity means that stimuli can be responded to very precisely and cells can be targeted more specifically. This opens up new possibilities for optogenetic applications.

“With our work, we have discovered a channelrhodopsin with multiple light-activated states for the first time,” summarizes Kötting. “It should be possible to create additional light-activated states in other channelrhodopsins through mutations, thus increasing their effectiveness.

“These findings could pave the way for even more efficient tools in optogenetics—with promising prospects for research and medicine.”

Brewer’s yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) is a cornerstone of industrial biotechnology. Its exceptional adaptability to diverse natural and industrial environments has led to the emergence of a wide variety of strains, each with unique genetic and metabolic characteristics.

However, most research on Saccharomyces cerevisiae and its applications still relies on a few laboratory strains such as S288c and CEN.PK, which limits the discovery of optimal strains for high-performance cell factory development.

In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a research team led by Prof. Zhou Yongjin from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Assoc. Prof. Lu Hongzhong from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, developed a powerful systems biology method to address this problem. They uncovered how yeast adapts to different environments at a systems level, through strain-specific metabolic modeling.

Researchers created a high-quality digital resource of the yeast pan-genome, and constructed metabolic models tailored to individual strains. Then, they developed a novel analysis pipeline that integrates genomic data, metabolic models, and multiomics information, and used it to systematically evaluate different strains.

As a proof of concept, researchers applied this pipeline to industrial ethanol-producing strains. They revealed that enhancing downstream pathways of glycolysis is key to efficient ethanol synthesis at the genetic, transcriptional, and metabolic levels. This finding provides insights into the rational design of yeast cell factories for ethanol and its derivatives.

“Our work not only provides a comprehensive digital resource of yeast strains for academia and industry, but also new methods for evaluating and selecting optimal chassis strains for biomanufacturing applications,” said Prof. Zhou.