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Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in men worldwide. Despite medical advances in recent years, this type of tumour is still responsible for one in eight male cancer deaths in Austria alone. An international research team led by MedUni Vienna has now investigated a new strategy for the development of treatment options that not only slow tumour growth, but also stimulate the immune system to combat tumour cells.

An international study led by MedUni Vienna has identified the transcription factor ONECUT3 as a regulator of the development of neurons in the hypothalamus. Transcription factors such as ONECUT3 are proteins that control the activity of genes. The hypothalamus is a region of the brain that acts as an interface between the brain and body through hormone production, to control metabolism, growth, parenting and others.

Nonlinguistic Sounds Activate Language-Related Networks in the Brain A team of researchers, including psycholinguist Jutta Mueller from the University of Vienna, has discovered that newborns are capable of learning complex sound sequences that follow language-like rules. This groundbreaking study provides long-sought evidence that the ability to perceive dependencies between non-adjacent acoustic signals is innate.

The human genetic code is fully mapped out, providing scientists with a blueprint of the DNA to identify genomic regions and their variations responsible for diseases. Traditional statistical tools effectively pinpoint these genetic "needles in the haystack," yet they face challenges in understanding how many genes contribute to diseases, as seen in diabetes or schizophrenia.

Lyme borreliosis is the most common tick-borne infectious disease in Europe. Up to 70,000 new cases are estimated each year in Austria alone. The bacterial infection can cause lasting health problems for patients. A MedUni Vienna research team has made significant progress in understanding the mechanism of infection and identified a potential way forward for the development of targeted therapies that do not rely on antibiotics.

Predatory marine bacterium could be used in medicine Researchers at ETH Zurich, in collaboration with microbiologists from the University of Vienna, have studied the unusual arsenal of weapons of a predatory marine bacterium called Aureispira down to the smallest detail. Among other things, it is a kind of "molecular grappling hook" that catches prey.

Study shows: Chickpeas are a drought-resistant legume plant with a high protein content Climate change has a negative impact on food security. An international research team led by Wolfram Weckwerth from the University of Vienna has now conducted a study to investigate the natural variation of different chickpea genotypes and their resistance to drought stress.

An international team of researchers with significant involvement from the Department of Neurosurgery at Vienna General Hospital and MedUni Vienna has made significant progress in the visualisation of difficult-to-detect brain tumours during surgery. The recently published study is the first to investigate the combined use of 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA) and digital stimulated Raman histology (SRH), a new type of microscopic fluorescence analysis tool.

ISTA scientists predict-and witness-evolution in a 30-year marine snail experiment Snails on a tiny rocky islet evolved before scientists' eyes. The marine snails were reintroduced after a toxic algal bloom wiped them out from the skerry. While the researchers intentionally brought in a distinct population of the same snail species, these evolved to strikingly resemble the population lost over 30 years prior.

How a bunch of seemingly disorganized cells go on to form a robust embryo Embryo development starts when a single egg cell is fertilized and starts dividing continuously. Initially a chaotic cluster, it gradually evolves into a highly organized structure. An international team of researchers including scientists from the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) has provided new insights into the process, emphasizing the critical role of both chaos and order.

Despite the same pelvis-to-head ratio, Japanese macaques do not suffer the same birth complications as humans An international research team led by the University of Vienna and the Medical University of Vienna has used long-term demographic data from Japanese macaques - a monkey species within the family of Old World monkeys - to show that, unlike humans, there is no maternal mortality in these primates linked to childbirth.

Almost everyone knows about HIV. Fewer people know about its relative, HTLV-1. However, HTLV-1 can cause serious illnesses, including cancer. To develop ways to combat this virus, understanding its structure is essential. Martin Obr and Florian Schur from the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) and US colleagues now show the virus in close-up in a new paper, published in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology .

Palaeontologists trace the influence of humans using predatory snail boreholes Predatory snails drill holes in the shells of their prey. Using these boreholes, a research team led by palaeontologist Martin Zuschin from the University of Vienna was able to create a time series of predator-prey relationships in the northern Adriatic over the past millennia.

Mammals with distant evolutionary ties but similar ecological roles evolved comparable inner ear shapes A new study reveals the surprisingly convergent evolution in the inner ear of mammals. An international research team led by Nicole Grunstra from the University of Vienna and Anne Le Maître from the Konrad Lorenz Institute (KLI) for Evolution and Cognition Research (Klosterneuburg) showed that a group of highly divergent mammals known as Afrotheria and distantly related, but ecologically very similar mammals independently evolved similar inner ear shapes.

A team of interdisciplinary scientists from Australia and Austria has developed a method to understand how butterflies form their fascinating colors. The research study, which was led by Bodo Wilts, Professor of Materials Physics at the Paris Lodron University of Salzburg, sheds new light on a previously little-understood phenomenon in nature.

The results of a multicentre study on multiple sclerosis recently published in the journal "Neurology" could significantly improve the treatment of this chronic inflammatory disease. Researchers from the Medical Universities of Innsbruck and Vienna and the Inselspital, University Hospital Bern have shown that two or more lesions in the brain visible on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) within one year are an indication in favour of intensifying treatment.

An international research group led by MedUni Vienna and IMBA - Institute of Molecular Biotechnology, Vienna, has made significant progress in understanding the mechanisms that influence the sensation of pain after surgery. Currently available treatment methods for post-operative pain can cause considerable side effects and are often only partially effective.

Sea anemone regulates stem cells through evolutionarily conserved genes The sea anemone Nematostella vectensis is potentially immortal. Using molecular genetic methods, developmental biologists led by Ulrich Technau from the University of Vienna have now identified possible candidates for multipotent stem cells in the sea anemone for the first time.

Research team identifies unconventional energy source for recently discovered "green" nitrifying bacteria An international research team led by the Centre for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science (CeMESS) at the University of Vienna has discovered that comammox bacteria, first identified by them in 2015, can grow using guanidine, a nitrogen-rich organic compound, as their sole energy and nitrogen source.

The nuclear pore basket is a filamentous structure attached to the nucleoplasmic side of the nuclear pore complex (NPC), crucial for regulating transport between the nucleus and cytoplasm. In a paper published in Nature Cell Biology, Edvinas Stankunas and Alwin Köhler revealed the structural basis of the basket filaments and their docking mechanism to the main body of the NPC.