https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33548518/
Nolte, H., Waserman, S., Ellis, A. K., Biedermann, T., & Würtzen, P. A. (2021). Treatment effect of the tree pollen SLIT-Tablet on allergic rhinoconjunctivitis during oak pollen season. The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology in Practice, 9(5), 1871–1878.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaip.2021.01.035
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10358-1
Akbari, A., Perry, A., Barton, A. R., Kariminejad, M., Gazal, S., Li, Z., Zeng, Y., Mittnik, A., Patterson, N., Mah, M., Zhou, X., Price, A. L., Lander, E. S., Pinhasi, R., Rohland, N., Mallick, S., & Reich, D. (2026). Ancient DNA reveals pervasive directional selection across West Eurasia. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10358-1
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-00911-3
NEWS AND VIEWS
15 April 2026
How effective is the personalized off-label use of targeted cancer treatment If general cancer treatment fails, a tumour-type-specific therapy might be tried for other cancers with genetic changes in the targeted pathway. How well does this work?
By Funda Meric-Bernstam
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-01596-4
QT:{{” In one experiment, Natarajan and his colleagues used Google’s Co-Scientist to look for approved drugs that could be repurposed to treat a form of blood cancer called acute myeloid leukaemia1. The system identified a list of candidate drugs, from which human researchers selected five for further study. Three of these showed promise in preliminary studies on cells grown in the lab.
FutureHouse, a non-profit AI research lab in San Francisco,
California, developed the second system, called Robin, and instructed it to find drugs to treat an eye condition called dry age-related macular degeneration2. “}}
Gottweis, J. et al. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10644-y (2026).
Ghareeb, A. E. et al. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10652-y (2026).
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3718632/
QT:{{” A 24-year-old man presented to the emergency department with acute anticholinergic symptoms, hallucinations, and bizarre behavior following a large ingestion of diphenhydramine (Benadryl). “}}
benadryl can cross BBB & cause delusions
Zeng H. 2022. What is a cell type and how to define it? Cell 185: 2739–2755. doi:10.1016/j.
cell.2022.06.031
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41592-026-03020-1?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=nmeth QT:{{” Generative AI technology is having substantial impacts across society, and scientific publishing is by no means immune. We highlight journal policies around the use of generative AI and discuss its responsible use in writing, peer reviewing and publishing scientific research. “}}
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10269-1
Nice discussion of discrete cell types v cont. cell states
QT:{{”
Although the transcriptomic classification of cell types and states into discrete hierarchical entities is useful for standardizing and recogniz- ing functional units8, this framework could risk the reinforcement of a Platonic view, in which observed states are viewed as approximations to idealized configurations underpinned by strict gene programs (Fig. 1a). The advent of single-cell RNA sequencing has provided evidence for the notion that cells often traverse continuous and multidimensional landscapes of gene expression, shaped by varying degrees of constraint and plasticity. Such dynamics are an inherent cellular attribute that also occurs in seemingly stable physiological states, and processes in normal physiology once thought to involve binary choices are now recognized as continuous (Fig. 1b). For example, haematopoiesis reflects gradual acquisition of lineage biases rather than transitions between discrete progenitor states9. Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) proceeds through multiple intermediate hybrid states with context-specific tran- scriptional profiles10. Waddington’s well-known epigenetic landscape metaphor, where cells roll down a fixed, branching landscape during cell-fate decisions and settle at valleys corresponding to stable inter- mediate or terminally differentiated states, may not fully capture the continuity of cellular-state transitions11. Instead, the landscape itself appears to be flexible, especially in disease contexts, with environmental and genetic changes reshaping the accessibility of states, thus changing the barriers that govern cell-state transitions (Fig. 1c). “}}
França, G. S., & Yanai, I. (2026). A mechanism for adaptive genome regulation in cancer. Nature, 652(8110), 581–590.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10269-1
https://news.yale.edu/2026/04/02/zebrafish-reveal-new-insights-biology-autism?utm_source=YaleToday&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=YT_YaleToday-Faculty_4-7-2026 QT{{” Here, we leverage the strengths of zebrafish as a scalable in vivo system to screen 520 US FDA-approved drugs and establish a database of their effects on sensory processing and arousal behaviors. Using this database, we nominate pharmacological candidates relevant to specific ASD genes or gene subgroups. “}}
Jamadagni, P., Dai, Y., Liu, Y., Mendes, H. W., Pruitt, A., Khan, S., Yang, L., Huang, T., Huang, X., Deans, P. J. M., Balafkan, N., Zhao, D., Xu, G., Liu, Y., Li, N., Wu, W., Fitzpatrick, S. E., Neelakantan, U., Chen, T., . . . Hoffman, E. J. (2026). Pharmaco-behavioral profiling identifies suppressors of autism gene–associated phenotypes in zebrafish. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 123(12), e2518846123. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2518846123
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27188817/
ASO v RNAi v siRNA
QT:{{”
how a specific toxic conformation might be favoured
within the expanded polyQ of monomeric HTT exon1
is unclear37,47. More-complex conformational effects in
monomeric HTT exon1 linked to polyQ repeat length
are formally possible but challenging to establish37,49. By
contrast, the widely reported ability of HTT exon1 to
readily form a variety of aggregated structures presents
an array of plausible candidates that might mediate toxicity (see below)37. This aggregation links Huntington
disease to other neurodegenerative diseases that feature
a protein aggregation component, including Alzheimer
disease, Parkinson disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
and spongiform encephalopathies.
…
bind to HTT mRNA selectively and target it for degradation
by cellular mechanisms. When the agent is a short
interfering RNA (siRNA) or microRNA, the HTT
mRNA is degraded by cytoplasmic RNA-induced silencing
complex (RISC) — a process known as RNA interference
(RNAi). Alternatively, a single-stranded modified
DNA molecule or antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) can
be used to direct the transcript for degradation by
nuclear ribonuclease H.
“}}
Bates, G. P., Dorsey, R., Gusella, J. F., Hayden, M. R., Kay, C., Leavitt, B. R., Nance, M., Ross, C. A., Scahill, R. I., Wetzel, R., Wild, E. J., & Tabrizi, S. J. (2015). Huntington disease. Nature Reviews Disease Primers, 1(1), 15005.
https://doi.org/10.1038/nrdp.2015.5
from G search {{
”
Yes, amyloid fibrils in Huntington’s disease (HD) contain a specific protein—the mutated huntingtin (Htt) protein. These fibrils are formed specifically from the N-terminal exon 1 fragment of the mutant protein, which contains an expanded polyglutamine (polyQ) tract that forms the amyloid core.
….
Although they contain the mutant protein, the amyloid fibrils in HD are distinct from those in Alzheimer’s (A
) or Parkinson’s (
-synuclein) diseases.
”
}}
linkstream2 microblog 