SUSAN ELEANOR WILLIAMS, M.D.

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A gene-edited pig kidney was transplanted into a brain-dead human and kept functioning for a planned 61-day study using only standard approved anti-rejection drugs. The kidney maintained stable electrolyte balance and eliminated the need for dialysis, but antibody-mediated rejection emerged on day 33 and was reversed with plasma exchange and complement inhibition. The study shows a minimally modified pig kidney can sustain human-equivalent kidney function and identifies pre-existing immune cells reactive to pig tissue as a key obstacle to long-term success.

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Researchers studied how the human immune system reacts to a pig kidney transplant in a brain-dead human. They found that specific immune cells in the blood increased significantly, leading to rejection of the kidney by day 33 after the transplant. This research is important because it helps identify ways to improve the success of pig organ transplants in humans, potentially addressing the shortage of available human organs for transplantation.

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This paper explores how a protein called ANXA11 can trigger a phase change — like a liquid-to-gel transition — in the fat molecules of the lysosome membrane it contacts. Two other proteins, ALG2 and CALC, regulate this coupling and influence how stiff the membrane becomes and whether it can attach to RNA-containing granules. This protein-lipid phase coupling mechanism may help explain how cells control where RNA granules travel inside the cell.

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This study used high-speed X-ray imaging and nerve-blocking injections to examine how food texture and oral sensation shape tongue movement during chewing in skunks. Soft foods caused more tongue motion and rear tongue deformation, but the basic timing of tongue-jaw coordination stayed consistent across food types. Even when the nerves supplying the tongue and teeth were blocked, overall jaw-tongue timing was maintained — suggesting the brain preserves rhythmic coordination while sensory nerves fine-tune the details of how food is handled.

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Researchers transplanted a pig kidney-thymus combination into a deceased human and tracked the immune response over 61 days. T cells from the recipient infiltrated the organ and specific clones expanded in blood, tissue, and lymph nodes around rejection events. This reveals that T cell-driven rejection of pig organs in humans closely mirrors what happens with human-to-human transplants, informing how future immunosuppression strategies must be designed.

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This study compared how ferrets (meat-eaters with an unfused jaw joint) and kinkajous (fruit-eaters with a fused jaw joint) recruit chewing muscles on each side of the head. Ferrets used far more force on the chewing side than the resting side, while kinkajous recruited both sides more evenly. The authors argue that an unfused jaw joint combined with highly asymmetric muscle use lets carnivores like ferrets generate the precise, directed forces needed to slice through tough food with their shearing teeth.

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Researchers analyzed prey selection by pumas across six sites in North and South America, looking at how season, prey availability, sex, and age influenced which prey sizes pumas chose. Pumas preferred smaller prey during warmer seasons when young ungulates are abundant, and older males tended to select larger prey than younger males. Despite males being physically larger than females, both sexes killed prey of similar size — a finding that challenges standard assumptions about how body size drives prey choice in carnivores.

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Young pigs raised on a soft liquid diet were compared to those raised on solid chow when both groups were given harder foods to chew. Pigs fed the soft diet chewed faster, rotated their jaws less, and were less likely to alternate chewing sides — all signs of less effective chewing mechanics — especially on tough foods like almonds. The results suggest that early exposure to solid food textures is important for developing full chewing ability, and prolonged soft-diet feeding during development may impair that skill.

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This study examined why healthcare providers were slow to adopt monoclonal antibody treatments for COVID-19 despite FDA emergency authorization, using interviews grounded in Diffusion of Innovations theory. Providers at large health systems adopted faster because they had access to collaborative infrastructure and timely, evidence-based information summaries. The findings identify practical tools — like concise clinical summaries and institutional support networks — that can speed up treatment adoption during future public health emergencies.

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ANXA11 is a protein that tethers RNA-containing granules to lysosomes so they can be transported together inside cells. This study shows that ANXA11 can also cause the lysosome membrane's lipids to shift phase states, making the membrane stiffer and changing how well it grips RNA granules. The phenomenon suggests that protein condensates near membranes can physically remodel membrane properties — a potentially widespread mechanism for organizing cell biology.

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This paper demonstrates a method for measuring three-dimensional tongue shape changes during chewing in pigs, using implanted markers and X-ray video. By decomposing 3D angles into side-to-side and up-down components, the technique reveals how the tongue bends, widens, and twists in different regions independently of jaw position. The approach provides a reusable template for studying how soft tissues change shape during feeding across animals of different sizes.

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This study tested whether involving patients, clinicians, and community organizations together in redesigning kidney care services could make those services more sustainable. The two-year project identified underused resources — including home dialysis patients and social services — and unmet patient needs, and produced redesigned education programs and new service pathways. The findings suggest that collaborative, stakeholder-driven research can reveal practical changes that move kidney care toward more financially and socially sustainable models.

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Two nearly extinct groups of mountain caribou in British Columbia were rescued from imminent collapse through two interventions: keeping pregnant females and calves in protective pens during calving season, and reducing wolf numbers. Wolf reduction alone stabilized one herd and grew the other slightly, but adding maternity penning to the second herd produced stronger population growth, more than doubling caribou numbers over the study period. The results show both actions work and complement each other, while also underscoring that long-term recovery still requires restoring and protecting habitat.

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Researchers tracked wild deermice over two years, measuring stress hormone levels and survival to test whether higher stress hormones predict lower survival. Mice with lower stress hormone responses were actually more likely to be captured in traps, suggesting that trap-shy animals look falsely low-stress in field studies. This trappability bias can distort conclusions about hormone-fitness relationships, and the study recommends that field researchers account for it when interpreting glucocorticoid data.

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This study compared jaw and tongue movements in pigs during chewing versus drinking using X-ray video analysis. Chewing involved an extended tooth-contact phase and larger tongue movements, while drinking involved the tongue protruding outside the mouth for entire cycles with more symmetric jaw motion. The differences suggest the brain uses distinct control programs for these two behaviors despite both being rhythmic oral activities.

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This study measured how different parts of the pig tongue change shape — getting longer or shorter, wider or narrower — during chewing versus drinking. Tongue deformations were larger during chewing, and the timing of shape changes differed between behaviors even though jaw-tongue coordination overall stayed consistent. The results reveal that the tongue operates with regional flexibility, with different parts contributing differently depending on the task, consistent with its properties as a muscular hydrostat.

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Researchers developed an optimization method for selecting new protected areas in Sabah, Malaysia, that simultaneously maximizes protection of species ranges, ecosystem types, forest carbon, and landscape connectivity for dispersing animals. Including connectivity in the planning increased corridor and elevation-range protection by 13–21% with only minor reductions in other conservation targets. The approach offers a practical framework for governments and conservation planners who need to balance multiple goals when expanding protected area networks.

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Using high-throughput sequencing of pooled mosquitoes from northern Western Australia, researchers discovered a new hepacivirus — a group that includes hepatitis C virus — and named it Jogalong virus. The virus was found in only one of 300 individual mosquitoes tested, and genetic analysis of that mosquito's last blood meal identified a bird (the tawny frogmouth) as a likely vertebrate host. The discovery adds to the growing picture of hepacivirus diversity in wildlife and raises questions about which animals maintain these viruses in nature.

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Mouse kidney parvovirus causes kidney disease in immunocompromised mice similar to a kidney transplant complication in humans. This study identified two previously unknown proteins the virus makes in infected kidneys and found that related viruses in bats and primates also concentrate in kidneys. The work suggests that kidney tropism may be a shared trait across this entire group of parvoviruses, making them potentially useful models for studying kidney disease.

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Researchers used X-ray video to measure how pigs adjust their jaw movements when chewing foods of different toughness and stiffness. Tougher foods led to more variable jaw timing and changes in jaw opening amplitude, while stiffer foods mainly increased how far the jaw swings side to side. The study shows that toughness and stiffness affect chewing through distinct mechanisms, and that the pig's generalist tooth and joint anatomy allows both flexible and precise responses to different foods.

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After surgically cutting the sensory nerve to one side of the tongue in pigs, the timing of how the tongue and jaw move together during chewing shifted — tongue movements occurred earlier in the jaw cycle than before the injury. The change was consistent across animals even though the specific compensatory patterns each animal used differed individually. The findings establish that intact sensory feedback from the tongue is needed to maintain the precise timing of jaw-tongue coordination during chewing.

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This study reviewed how mantled howling monkeys in Costa Rica adapt to habitat changes through changes in body size, food processing, and temperature regulation. Howlers living in warmer, drier habitats were smaller, and animals showed seasonal weight changes and behavioral adjustments to avoid heat — indicating considerable flexibility to cope with environmental shifts. The authors argue that targeted habitat management — creating large, connected forest patches with diverse food sources — could help howlers survive ongoing habitat loss and climate change.

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Researchers used a comprehensive virus-screening method to test blood and heart tissue from 33 patients with myocarditis, including rare giant cell myocarditis. No known viral pathogens typically linked to myocarditis were found in cardiac tissue from the most severe cases; instead, human endogenous retroviruses — genetic remnants already embedded in the human genome — were consistently detected. The results suggest that if viruses play a role in these severe heart conditions, it is likely indirect rather than through direct infection of heart muscle cells.

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Researchers used broad, unbiased genetic sequencing to survey the viruses carried by a mosquito species in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. They identified 16 novel viral sequences, none related to known disease-causing viruses, distributed unevenly across three collection sites. The work expands knowledge of mosquito-associated viruses in a poorly studied region and highlights that most of the viral diversity in insect vectors remains uncharacterized.

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A novel virus was discovered contaminating a widely used mouse immune cell line, which was causing false-positive results in routine rodent health screening tests. The virus, murine astrovirus 2 (MuAstV-2), spread easily between immunocompetent mice but could not infect mice lacking both innate and adaptive immunity. The findings prompted development of a targeted test to eliminate the virus from affected colonies and suggest MuAstV-2 could be a useful model for studying how the immune system controls astrovirus infections.

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Marshallese people living in Arkansas have Hansen's disease (leprosy) at rates far higher than the general U.S. population, and this study reviewed 42 cases treated from 2003 to 2017. Many patients experienced serious complications including joint disease and immune reactions, and 40% required more than two years of treatment — mostly due to interrupted therapy. The findings highlight the need for culturally appropriate support to help patients complete treatment and prevent the complications that come with undertreated disease.

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This commentary defines key terms — racism, antiracism, bias, equity — and discusses how plastic surgeons and their institutions can adopt antiracist practices. It outlines concrete steps for training programs and clinical environments to address racial and ethnic health disparities. The piece calls on the plastic surgery field to actively build diversity and equity rather than treat it as secondary to technical training.

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Cutting the sensory nerve on one side of the tongue in pigs altered how the jaw moved during chewing, with animals showing increased jaw opening and reduced side-to-side rotation — but the effects varied substantially between individual animals. Timing of the chewing cycle was also disrupted in most animals, but each used different compensatory strategies. The variable responses suggest that sensory input from the tongue is important for both the spatial extent and timing of jaw movements, and that individuals have distinct ways of adapting to this kind of sensory loss.

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Fecal samples from four bat species in Saudi Arabia were analyzed using high-throughput sequencing, revealing genetic evidence of viruses from at least ten known viral families plus a previously undescribed virus that appears to bridge two separate viral families. No close relatives of known human pathogens were detected. The work contributes to bat virus surveillance efforts in a region with potential for zoonotic spillover and illustrates the breadth of viral diversity still being uncovered in wildlife.

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While investigating liver disease in wild New York City mice, researchers discovered two new RNA viruses — but found through fluorescence imaging that the viruses were actually living inside a parasitic nematode worm that had infected the mouse liver, not in the mouse itself. The same viruses were also detected in rats, and both nematode adults and eggs carried viral RNA. The findings highlight that complex samples can hide the true viral host and that nematodes may harbor far more viruses than currently recognized.

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This paper introduces a graph-based mathematical method for comparing and classifying fluid flow patterns, such as the swirling wakes produced by swimming animals. The method identifies key flow features like vortices, encodes their geometric relationships as a graph, and measures how different two flow fields are by finding the best match between their graphs. Tests on artificial flow patterns show the method is accurate and robust, and it can compare flows produced by completely different animals or mechanisms.

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This study measured how the timing of pig jaw movements changes when chewing foods that vary in toughness and stiffness using X-ray video. Tougher foods made chewing timing more variable and unpredictable, while stiffer foods produced more consistent but cautious jaw timing — especially in how long the teeth contact the food. The results show that toughness and stiffness affect chewing rhythm through different control mechanisms, with toughness disrupting timing variability and stiffness increasing precision.

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High-throughput sequencing of over 2,000 ticks — including the three species most associated with human disease in the U.S. — revealed 33 viruses, 24 of which appear to be new to science. The most common viruses belonged to families also found in other invertebrates, and virus distributions differed across tick species and collection sites. The work substantially expands the known tick virome and provides a foundation for identifying which of these viruses might pose health risks to humans or animals.

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House mice trapped across New York City carried multiple bacteria capable of causing human gastrointestinal disease, along with widespread genes conferring resistance to common antibiotics including fluoroquinolones and beta-lactams. Genetic typing found that some bacterial strains matched types that cause disease in humans, and evidence of pathogenic Leptospira was found in mouse kidneys. The findings identify urban mice as potential reservoirs and vectors for both pathogens and antimicrobial resistance in the built environment.

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Researchers trapped house mice across New York City over a year and used unbiased genetic sequencing to catalog the viruses in their feces. They found 36 viruses from 18 families, including at least 6 novel viruses, distributed unevenly across locations — and heavier mice carried more viruses. No known human pathogens were identified, but the diversity and proximity of these mice to people underscores the need for continued monitoring of urban rodents as potential sources of new infectious diseases.

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Blood from Tanzanian patients with unexplained fever was screened for viruses using two high-throughput sequencing methods: standard unbiased sequencing and a system that selectively enriches for vertebrate viruses. Both methods detected viruses including dengue, West Nile, HIV, and Epstein-Barr virus, and both could reconstruct nearly complete viral genomes from samples with multiple viruses present. The comparison shows the two approaches are complementary — the enrichment method detected more viruses, while unbiased sequencing gave better coverage of genome ends.

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Infrared thermography was used to measure surface temperatures of wild howler monkeys in Costa Rica, alongside implanted sensors measuring just below the skin. Temperature gradients through fur-covered skin tracked subcutaneous temperature closely, while bare facial areas responded more to ambient conditions — consistent with the face acting as a thermal window for heat release. The findings validate infrared thermography as a tool for studying temperature regulation in wild furry animals, since skin surface temperatures still reflect deeper body temperatures.

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Surveillance in northern Western Australia detected a new flavivirus — named Fitzroy River virus — in mosquitoes, primarily in one species. Lab tests showed it can infect mammalian and bird cells and cause mild disease in mice, and blood tests found neutralizing antibodies in horses, cattle, and a small number of humans in the region. The work establishes the virus as a true pathogen with the potential to infect people, warranting further monitoring.

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This study tracked jaw joint fusion in alpacas from birth to adulthood, measuring bone strain during chewing at different developmental stages. The joint begins fusing within the first month and is complete by six months, coinciding with when the baby teeth come into full contact — but strain at the fusing joint was actually lower in young animals than in adults, contrary to the prediction that fusion happens in response to high chewing loads. The findings suggest fusion timing is tied more to the maturation of chewing mechanics and diet transitions than to peak mechanical stress.

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Thyroid hormone levels were tracked across seasons in two primate species — tropical howler monkeys in Costa Rica and Japanese macaques in snowy Japan — to test whether both use thyroid hormones to regulate body heat. Both species had higher thyroid hormone levels during their cooler seasons and showed greater warming of their bodies relative to ambient temperature at those times. The results show that even tropical primates, who experience only modest seasonal temperature shifts, use thyroid hormones as a metabolic tool to stay warm.

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Using electrical recordings of jaw muscles in ferrets (meat-eaters) and kinkajous (fruit-eaters), this study found that both species show highly synchronized muscle activation — a pattern seen broadly in carnivores. However, kinkajous differed in that one balancing-side muscle activated later than all others, likely enabling the side-to-side grinding motions their flat teeth require for processing fruit. The findings suggest that the overall timing pattern of jaw muscle activity is conserved across carnivorans, while specific muscles can be modified to match diet and tooth shape.

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This paper presents the Mammalian Feeding Muscle Ontology (MFMO), a structured database of feeding-related muscles across mammals with definitions based on attachment points and nerve supply that hold true across species. The ontology was integrated into a text-mining search system and evaluated against PubMed and Google Scholar by testing whether it could correctly answer anatomy questions. The results showed the MFMO returned anatomically precise, relevant results that standard keyword searches in PubMed and Google Scholar could not replicate.

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This analysis estimated the economic cost of Johne's disease — a chronic gut infection — in Australian dairy herds and compared the cost-effectiveness of different control strategies. An infected cow costs the farm roughly A$2,491 when culled for clinical disease, and at typical infection rates an infected herd loses nearly A$12,000 per year. Vaccination was the most cost-effective long-term control strategy, though any control program costs more in the early years than the disease itself.

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In 2014, health authorities in Arkansas identified a cluster of tuberculosis cases among Marshallese residents in northwest Arkansas, a community with origins in a country where TB rates are more than 70 times higher than in the U.S. Marshallese immigrants can enter the U.S. without TB screening under a longstanding treaty. This field report documents the outbreak and highlights the public health gap created by the lack of TB screening requirements for this population.

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X-ray video was used to directly measure skull flexibility — specifically movement of the snout relative to the rest of the skull — in live geckos during gaping, biting, and swallowing. During gaping, snout movement added 10% more mouth opening on top of lower jaw depression; during biting and swallowing, the snout flexed downward to help close the mouth and drive teeth into prey. The study shows that skull flexibility is not just structural but actively contributes to all three behaviors, expanding our understanding of how gecko feeding works.

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This study tested whether blocking the muscle-limiting protein myostatin after adulthood increases jaw muscle size and bite force in mice. Male mice treated with myostatin inhibition developed larger jaw muscles and slightly higher bite forces, while females showed no significant change. The results suggest myostatin plays a sex-specific role in jaw muscle biology and that postnatal inhibition may have limited but potentially meaningful effects on jaw muscle mass, relevant for aging-related muscle loss.

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Norway rats trapped in Manhattan were found to carry five species of ectoparasites — including fleas at a rate 18 times higher than previously reported for New York City — along with multiple species of pathogenic Bartonella bacteria in those fleas. No plague or Rickettsia bacteria were detected. The unexpectedly high flea burden and the diversity of potentially harmful bacteria highlight that rats in dense urban settings remain a meaningful public health concern for vector-borne disease.