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A chronic stressor prior to mating has lasting negative consequences on the fertility and fecundity of female rats, which can be prevented by blocking a single hypothalamic reproductive inhibitory hormone.

Notch ligands expressed in the same cell as the Notch receptor are crucial to prevent accidental, ligand-independent Notch activity.

Ca²⁺ channels and release sensors at a fast central synapse are tightly coupled, which minimizes the effect of extracellular Ca²⁺ concentration on the timing of transmitter release.

While electron microscopic helical reconstruction is a powerful technique in structural biology, mistakes can be made in determining the helical symmetry, leading to structures that are artifactual.

Manipulating the activity of ‘stretch-sensitive’ ion channels in neurons innervating the digestive system of fruit flies has dramatic effects on food intake, suggesting that these ion channels could be targets for drugs to help tackle obesity.

The crystal structure of a PfRh family protein from a malaria parasite has been solved and shows that PfRh5-which the parasite uses to invade human red blood cells-has a novel protein fold.

A low-level pulse of the nuclear Prospero protein is necessary and sufficient to cause neural progenitor cells to enter a quiescent state.

The small molecule Inauhzin possesses a dual targeting ability, and activates p53 by targeting two enzymes—SIRT1 and IMP dehydrogenase 2 (IMPDH2)—which are highly expressed in human cancers.

Transient increases in calcium release in prefrontal cortex neurons, observable only in awake animals, may form the basis of associative learning.

The pattern of past Ebola outbreaks is indicative of an effective reproductive ratio of less than 1, which can lead to the generation of a range of outbreak sizes consistent with the scale of the ongoing epidemic.