It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Friday, August 07, 2026
First complete songbird genome reveals hidden biology
In a new study, scientists uncover thousands of previously hidden genes and reveal ancient chromosome structures, with sweeping implications for the study of neuroscience and evolution.
Rockefeller’s Jarvis lab has assembled the first fully phased, diploid telomere-to-telomeregenome of a songbird, which constitutes the most complete and accurate bird genome to date.
Credit: b.illustrations, courtesy of the Jarvis lab
The zebra finch is one of the best-studied songbirds and a model for understanding the biology and neuroscience of vocal learning. Now, researchers have produced the first complete genome assembly of the species, revealing thousands of previously hidden genes and chromosome structures.
It is the first songbird genome to capture every chromosome from end to end while distinguishing the DNA inherited from each parent, making it the most complete and accurate bird genome assembled to date. Part of a package of 10 papers being published simultaneously in Cell and Cell Genomics, this study, which is appears in Cell, reveals 2,710 previously unknown genes, shows that birds and mammals share an organized centromere architecture, and resolves tiny chromosomes that provide clues to the evolution of vertebrates and vocal learning.
"This represents the second complete genome of a vocal learner. The first was a human," says Erich D. Jarvis, head of the Laboratory of Neurogenetics of Language at Rockefeller. "We can use this complete genome to interrogate the biology of vocal learning. If there is a key molecule that converts a non-vocal learning species to a vocal learning species, it's in there somewhere."
Difficult genomes
The chatty zebra finch has long been one of neuroscience's most important model organisms. Known for repertoire of chirps, trills, and even cartoonish laser-like sounds, the zebra finch is especially valuable because, like humans, it learns its vocalizations by listening to and imitating others. That makes it a powerful model for studying the biology of speech.
But despite decades of research, scientists have never had a complete picture of its genome. Bird genomes are notoriously difficult to assemble because they contain dozens of tiny microchromosomes, and even smaller dot chromosomes, and long stretches of repetitive DNA that sequencing technologies struggle to read. Early attempts to produce bird genomes, including that of the zebra finch, were left pockmarked with gaps. Researchers were left to wonder whether apparently missing genes found in other vertebrates had truly been lost over evolutionary time, or had simply fallen between the gaps of incomplete assemblies.
"There are many false gene losses that have been reported up to this point," says Giulio Formenti, research assistant professor in the lab. "In some cases, they're real, but in many cases, they're actually just because of the less accurate genomes."
To close those gaps, researchers built on the sequencing advances that produced the first telomere-to-telomere human genome. But while that milestone relied on a haploid cell line containing only one set of chromosomes, assembling a complete zebra finch genome required the team to assemble a diploid genome, correctly distinguishing the DNA inherited from each parent, all while resolving some of the most repetitive regions ever assembled in a bird. "The human genomes this technology was built upon wasn’t designed to deal with problems like that," Jarvis says.
To overcome these unique challenges, the researchers combined multiple sequencing technologies. That required new computational methods, DNA sequencing capable of reading exceptionally long stretches of genetic material, and a custom protocol that chemically flushed and restarted the sequencing devices whenever repetitive DNA caused them to stall. "Some of these recalcitrant sequences would get stuck in the sequencing technology that we were using," Jarvis says. "We had to figure out how to unclog them, resequence, unclog and resequence, and so forth."
A songbird reference genome
The resulting reference genome adds roughly 90 million previously missing DNA base pairs and closes nearly all remaining gaps, revealing biological features never before seen in birds. Across the newly assembled DNA, the team uncovered more than 2,700 previously hidden genes, ending decades of uncertainty over whether they had truly been lost during evolution or simply missed by earlier genome assemblies. The assembly also resolves all 11 of the zebra finch's tiny dot chromosomes, revealing a consistent internal organization that may preserve the ancestral architecture of vertebrate genomes before larger chromosomes fused over hundreds of millions of years. It also delivers the first complete assembly of the female W chromosome, providing the clearest view yet of how avian sex chromosomes are organized and inherited.
Among the most important newly accessible regions were the centromeres. The centromere assembles the kinetochore and directs chromosome segregation: an essential, deeply conserved function that nonetheless sits on the most rapidly evolving sequence in the genome. Failure in segregation leads to aneuploidy, one of the hallmarks of cancer and a leading cause of pregnancy loss and congenital disorders in humans. By mapping them, the researchers found that birds share a key component of the molecular machinery that organizes these regions with mammals. "The centromere is this very fundamental unit of the cell that allows every cell division, ensuring the correct segregation of chromosomes," Formenti says. "It's one of the really fundamental components of how living organisms work." The findings overturned a longstanding assumption, revealing that a highly organized centromere architecture once thought to be unique to mammals is also found in birds. "The final frontier has been getting these centromere sequences," Jarvis says.
The paper, along with the entire coordinated package, comes from the Telomere-to-Telomere Consortium, and the work extends the consortium's genome-completion methods beyond humans to a range of other species. Among the package's non-human genomes, the zebra finch is the only bird genome and just one of a handful of non-primate vertebrates assembled to this level of completeness. The zebra finch assembly is also being incorporated into the first phase of the Vertebrate Genomes Project, which Jarvis and Formenti are co-leading, where it is actively being used by consortium members as a foundational reference for comparative genomic analyses across the vertebrate tree of life.
"This is a turning point in the field," Jarvis says. "We have the entire genome, and scientists can now use it to interrogate biology."
Credit: Adapted from ACS Applied Bio Materials 2026, DOI: 10.1021/acsabm.6c00471
The search for leather alternatives has led researchers somewhere unexpected: fungi. Although traditional leather is durable, producing it requires animal agriculture, which carries negative environmental impacts. Meanwhile, vegan alternatives are typically made from petroleum-based plastics that are difficult to recycle. Researchers report in ACS Applied Bio Materials that mycelium, the underground network of fibers below mushroom caps, can be pressed into a durable yet compostable leather-like fabric. They even sewed the fabric into a purse.
“Many people are looking for alternatives to fossil fuel-based and animal-derived materials, yet scalable alternatives remain limited,” says Manuel Arias-Barrantes, a co-author of the study. “Our work has solved one significant bottleneck, enabling large-scale production of affordable mycelium-based fabrics.”
Most mycelium materials are made by letting fungi grow across trays until the thread-like fibers knit themselves into a solid sheet. While effective, the approach can’t be used for mass production. Instead, Arias-Barrantes, Géza Szilvay, and their colleagues submerged the fungus Trichoderma reesei in a nutrient-rich liquid and grew it inside tanks like those used to brew beer. Rather than producing a sheet, the fungus grew into a thick, pulp-like mass. The researchers harvested the pulp, washed it, and then mixed in sorbitol (a naturally occurring sugar alcohol frequently added to foods and cosmetics) and cellulose (the primary structural component of plant cell walls) to improve flexibility and strength. Finally, they spread the mixture into thin sheets and dried it, creating a nonwoven, leather-like fabric.
Unlike the traditional tray method, the new pulp-based approach gave researchers more control over the final material, allowing them to adjust its properties, add colors and textures, or layer the mycelium material onto cotton fabrics.
Next, the researchers tested whether the production process could move beyond small laboratory samples. To do this, they used a roller system similar to those used in paper manufacturing, continuously producing mycelium sheets about 8 inches (20 centimeters) wide and 26 feet (8 meters) long. They then used the material to create a prototype handbag.
In laboratory tests, the rolled-out mycelium material reached tensile strengths comparable to traditional leather. The material broke down in water within 28 days and completely disintegrated under industrial composting conditions in about six weeks. Although the material still needs to become more resistant to tearing before mycelium-based products reach consumers, the researchers say the manufacturing process is promising because it uses equipment already common in the biotechnology and printing industries.
The authors acknowledge funding from Business Finland through the Research to Business program, the Research Council of Finland and its Centers of Excellence Program through the Centre of Excellence in Life-Inspired Hybrid Materials, and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland.
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Just as the microchip revolutionized information processing, quantum information science is poised to transform computing, communications, data security and electronics by harnessing the unique properties of quantum physics.
Leading experts in quantum science and technology from academia and industry, as well as Texas and federal policymakers, will gather Aug. 13-14 at The University of Texas at Dallas to discuss state-of-the-field topics at the Texas Quantum Summit 2026.
“Quantum computing is a transformative technology with the potential to significantly impact the Texas economy and workforce,” said Dr. Joseph Pancrazio, vice president for research and innovation and professor of bioengineering at UT Dallas. “Bringing together leaders across the quantum ecosystem is critical as Texas continues to drive advances in quantum science and helps unlock its potential for society.”
Importance of Quantum Science
Unlike classical computers, which rely on bits of information represented as 0s or 1s, quantum computers and related technologies take advantage of the curious effects of quantum physics, which governs the behavior of individual atoms and particles. Quantum computers use quantum bits, or qubits, which can exist in a combination, or superposition, of multiple states at once. This allows them to parallel process information in ways that could solve some problems far faster than today’s devices.
Advancing quantum science and developing new applications from it, including data security, are state and national priorities.
In 2018 the National Quantum Initiative Act established a coordinated federal effort to accelerate quantum research and development for economic and national security. In 2025 the Texas Legislature passed the Texas Quantum Initiative, a program designed to make the state a leader in quantum technology by supporting quantum science, and economic and workforce development.
During the summit, academic leaders and policymakers will engage with experts from commercial quantum computing and networking companies who are leading the development of large-scale systems. Topics will include hardware, software and applications; university-industry collaboration; and the Texas government’s role in quantum initiatives. Symposium panelists include representatives from Nvidia Corp., Amazon, IBM, Microsoft, Citigroup Inc., IonQ Inc., QuEra Computing Inc. and Infleqtion Inc.
University Research, Programs
Researchers at UT Dallas, including those affiliated with the Center for Quantum Integrated Systems, are conducting fundamental quantum science and engineering research in multiple areas, including quantum materials, quantum algorithms and quantum simulations.
Experts also have developed undergraduate and graduate-level coursework and certificate programs in quantum information sciences and engineering that are typically completed in one year.
“These programs are designed to provide professionals with core knowledge about quantum science and computers that will complement their expertise in other fields,” Kolodrubetz said. “For example, as quantum computing becomes more prevalent in drug design, biologists, biochemists and engineers who understand the language and how to design algorithms for quantum computers will have an advantage in the workplace. It is vitally important that we train the professionals who will become the end-users as well as the next generation of scientists and engineers who will design and develop quantum information technology.”
Why women need to be prioritized in longevity research
Buck scientists propose the Reproductive Resilience
This illustration presents the ovary as a central biological hub that helps coordinate health across the female body. Developing follicles populate one side of the clock face, while the impacted tissues are on the other side. Their placement symbolizes how reproductive signals may influence multiple organs throughout life. As ovarian resilience declines with age, this coordinated rhythm may become disrupted, contributing to broader changes in metabolism, immunity, cognition, cardiovascular function, and tissue maintenance. Rather than functioning only as a reproductive organ, the ovary is depicted as an important regulator of systemic biological timing and resilience.
Why do women, on average, live longer than men, yet often face a greater burden of chronic disease later in life? Why do some of the most fertile animals in nature, including queen bees and naked mole-rat queens, also live exceptionally long lives?
A perspective, to be published on August 6th in Cell, introduces the Reproductive Resilience Hypothesis (RRH), a new way to think about these questions. The hypothesis, developed by Buck professor Pankaj Kapahi, PhD and senior postdoc Parminder Singh, PhD, proposes that reproduction and longevity, often seen as opposing biological forces, may be tightly linked in the context of life history. The authors posit that women could be the key players in efforts to discover ways to extend human healthspan.
“If we wish to understand why organisms age, nature points us toward studying women, the sex in which reproduction most profoundly shapes the course of aging,” says Buck professor Pankaj Kapahi, PhD, senior author of the paper.
“The Reproductive Resilience Hypothesis is a new evolutionary framework for understanding why reproduction accelerates aging in some biological settings but is associated with exceptional longevity in others,” says Singh. “The central question is not simply how much an organism reproduces. It is whether continued survival remains important for future reproductive success, offspring survival, caregiving, or inclusive fitness.”
Reframing the relationship between reproductive investment and aging
Classical evolutionary theories of aging often describe reproduction and longevity as a trade-off. Because organisms have limited energy, investing heavily in reproduction should leave fewer resources for maintaining the body over time. The authors say that while this explanation is useful, it does not fully account for a recurring pattern across nature: in many species, the sex that invests most heavily in pregnancy, lactation, offspring care, or colony reproduction is also the longer-lived sex.
RRH proposes that when reproductive success depends on surviving long enough to reproduce repeatedly, care for offspring, or support kin and social groups, evolution may favor biological programs that strengthen the body’s ability to withstand stress. In these settings, reproduction and long-term maintenance may become linked rather than opposed.
“Our perspective helps explain why female mammals often outlive males, why queen insects can combine extraordinary fertility with longevity, and why male lifespan can equal or exceed female lifespan in species where fathers provide substantial infant care,” says Singh, who leads the research in the Kapahi lab.
A new lens on menopause and female healthspan
The framework also provides a new way to interpret human menopause and the female health-survival paradox. Women generally live longer than men, yet they often spend a greater proportion of later life with chronic disease, disability, or frailty.
The authors propose that menopause should not be viewed only as the end of fertility. Instead, it may represent an important inflection point in the progressive loss of reproductive resilience.
During reproductive life, ovarian signals are integrated with systems controlling metabolism, bone maintenance, immune regulation, brain function, stress responses, tissue repair, and communication among organs. As ovarian function declines, this reproductive-somatic communication network may become destabilized, exposing vulnerabilities that were previously buffered.
In this framework, menopause is not simply the loss of estrogen. It represents a broader disruption of the signals and physiological networks that connect reproductive function with whole-body maintenance.
“The ovary should not be viewed only as an organ that produces eggs and sex hormones,” Singh says. “It may also function as a communication hub whose endocrine, metabolic, immune, and paracrine signals help coordinate the physiological state of distant organs. When this communication declines, the consequences may extend far beyond fertility.”
The authors emphasize that RRH is not an estrogen-only explanation of female aging. Estrogen has complex, tissue-specific effects that depend on receptor type, timing, genetic background, inflammatory state, and disease stage. Aging also proceeds through processes such as DNA damage, protein aggregation, mitochondrial dysfunction, stem-cell exhaustion, and tissue-specific degeneration that may occur independently of reproductive state.
“We are not proposing that ovarian aging is the sole cause of systemic aging,” Kapahi said. “Rather, ovarian decline may remove an important layer of physiological coordination. That loss can interact with chronological aging, genetics, inflammation, metabolism, environmental exposures, and tissue-specific damage.”
Loss of reproductive resilience as a sex-specific hallmark of aging
The authors propose that loss of reproductive resilience should be considered a sex-specific hallmark-level process in aging. Like other hallmarks, it appears during normal aging, and its acceleration can worsen age-related decline. Interestingly, restoring aspects of ovarian function or signaling in experimental models has been shown to improve health-related outcomes.
Calling loss of reproductive resilience a sex-specific hallmark changes how we interpret reproductive aging, Singh said. It is not merely a marker that fertility has ended. It may be an upstream and temporally defined transition that changes the trajectory of several tissues and aging mechanisms at the same time.
Kapahi says RRH challenges a longstanding limitation in biomedical research. “For decades, many preclinical studies relied largely on male animals or young female animals that had never been pregnant. Yet pregnancy, lactation, menopause, ovarian surgery, and reproductive history can produce lasting changes in metabolism, immunity, the brain, and other organs. Treating these features only as sources of experimental variability may cause researchers to miss fundamental mechanisms of resilience and disease vulnerability.”
From evolutionary hypothesis to experimental discovery
Building on this framework, Singh and Kapahi are investigating how the ovary communicates with distant organs, including the brain, bone, immune system, and metabolic tissues. Their work aims to understand how reproductive aging disrupts this communication and whether beneficial ovarian signals can be restored without relying exclusively on conventional hormone replacement.
The broader goal is to determine whether the mechanisms that evolved to preserve females through reproduction, caregiving, and physiological stress can be identified and used to protect health later in life.
“Studying females is not a specialized branch of aging research,” Kapahi said. “It is an opportunity to discover biological mechanisms that evolution has already developed to preserve survival under the demanding conditions of reproduction and caregiving.”
“Female biology should be prioritized not only to correct a longstanding gap in biomedical research,” Singh added, “but because it may reveal resilience mechanisms that help us understand how to extend healthspan in both women and men.”
Rethinking the future of research on aging
The authors outline 11 ramifications of RRH that could reshape how research on aging is designed and translated into medicine. They call for human studies to routinely document reproductive history, including puberty, pregnancy, lactation, menopause, hormone therapy, and ovarian surgery. Animal studies, they say, should also move beyond comparisons between males and virgin females by including reproductively experienced, post-reproductive, and ovarian-signal-loss models.
“Reproductive history should not be treated simply as experimental variability,” said Singh. “It may reveal important mechanisms of resilience, disease vulnerability, and treatment response that conventional studies have overlooked.”
The authors also propose developing sex- and reproductive-state-specific biomarkers, mapping how reproductive transitions affect aging across organs, and identifying ovary-derived signals beyond classical sex hormones. These discoveries could guide interventions aimed at preserving systemic health without necessarily extending fertility. Comparative studies of queen insects, naked mole-rats, and other unusually resilient species may also reveal naturally evolved mechanisms that connect reproduction with long-term somatic maintenance.
“These ramifications provide a roadmap for converting the hypothesis into testable experiments and more precise interventions,” said Kapahi. “To fully understand aging, we need to consider not only biological sex, but also reproductive state and life history.”
Citation: Why Studying Females Reveals More About Aging: The Reproductive Resilience Hypothesis as an Evolutionary Framework for Studying Sex-Specific Aging
DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2026.07.013
Other collaborators include: Vineeta Tanwar, Yifan Xiang, Lizabeth Enriquez Najera, Buck Institute, and Steven N. Austad, Department of Biology, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Alabama.
Acknowledgements:
The work was supported by grants from the National Institute of Health (R01AG068288, R01AG061165) as well as the Larry L. Hillblom Foundation and the Hevolution Foundation.
About the Buck Institute for Research on Aging
At the Buck, we aim to end the threat of age-related diseases for this and future generations. We bring together the most capable and passionate scientists from a broad range of disciplines to study mechanisms of aging and to identify therapeutics that slow down aging. Our goal is to increase human health span, or the healthy years of life. Located just north of San Francisco, we are globally recognized as the pioneer and leader in efforts to target aging, the number one risk factor for serious diseases including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, cancer, macular degeneration, heart disease, and diabetes. The Buck wants to help people live better longer. Our success will ultimately change healthcare. Learn more at: https://buckinstitute.org
As women get older, their uterine environment changes. This includes a decrease in a beneficial bacterium called Lactobacillus gasseri, which may make conception—whether natural or via in vitro fertilization—difficult. In a study publishing in the Cell Press journal Cell Host & Microbe on August 6, researchers show that treating mice and humans with L. gasseri supplements or derived postbiotics may improve fertility among women over the age of 35.
“Reproductive aging has traditionally been attributed mainly to a diminished ovarian reserve and reduced embryo quality,” says corresponding author Rong Li, a physician at Peking University Third Hospital in Beijing, China. “However, successful pregnancy also depends on a healthy and receptive endometrium.”
The endometrium is the inner lining of the uterus where a fertilized egg implants during pregnancy. Li’s team analyzed the endometrial samples of 149 women aged 20 to 45 who were being treated for infertility. They divided patients into three groups: under 30, 30 to 35, and over 35. The youngest patients had a significantly higher abundance of Lactobacillus bacteria than the other two groups. Specifically, the team observed that L. gasseri declined with age.
“One finding that surprised us was that overall microbial diversity did not change markedly across the different age groups,” Li says. “Instead, the major differences involved particular bacterial species.”
When the researchers followed up with the participants one year later, 93 of the women had received embryo transfers, which had resulted in 56 clinical pregnancies. Pregnancy rates did not differ significantly among the three age groups. However, the pregnant women had a higher endometrial abundance of Lactobacillus than their non-pregnant peers.
Further testing revealed that among five different Lactobacillus strains present, L. gasseri best supported endometrial health by demonstrating antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. This strain also had the strongest adhesion to endometrial cells.
The researchers then examined human endometrial stromal cells, a type of connective tissue cell, to show that a specific component of L. gasseri called exopolysaccharides (EPS) helps protect against endometrial aging. In mouse models, older mice had higher embryo implantation rates when treated with EPS derived from L. gasseri.
“This suggests that a defined bacterial product, rather than only the living microorganism, may contribute to the observed effects on endometrial aging and receptivity, providing more feasible options for clinical intervention,” Li says.
In other words, the uterus could be easier to target than eggs or embryos for postbiotic treatment. Still, Li cautions women against self-medication with over-the-counter L. gasseri products, which have not been validated to treat infertility. She also says that more research is needed, and this study alone cannot prove that changes in the uterine microbiome cause endometrial aging or adverse pregnancy outcomes.
“Female reproductive aging is a multidimensional process,” Li says. “The health of the endometrium and its local microbial environment deserves greater attention. Although this is an early-stage study, we are still very excited about its clinical potential to improve female fertility.”
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This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China, National Natural Science Foundation of China, and National Key Research and Development Project of China.
Cell Host & Microbe (@cellhostmicrobe), published by Cell Press, is a monthly journal that publishes novel findings and translational studies related to microbes (which include bacteria, fungi, parasites, and viruses). The unifying theme is the integrated study of microbes in conjunction and communication with each other, their host, and the cellular environment they inhabit. Visit http://www.cell.com/cell-host-microbe. To receive Cell Press media alerts, contact press@cell.com.
Lactobacillus gasseri Postbiotics Ameliorate Age-related Decline in Endometrial Receptivity
Article Publication Date
6-Aug-2026
Mental health symptom changes by sex or gender before and during the COVID-19 pandemic
JAMA Network Open
About this Study:
This systematic review and meta-analysis assesses changes in mental health symptoms from before to during the COVID-19 pandemic by sex and gender.
Visit JAMA+ Women's Health to explore Women's Health research from across JAMA Network curated by Linda Brubaker, MD.
Corresponding Author: Brett D. Thombs, PhD, Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research, Jewish General Hospital, 3755 Cote Ste-Catherine, Pavilion H4.83, Montreal, QC H3T 1E2, Canada (brett.thombs@mcgill.ca).
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Journal
JAMA Network Open
Therapeutic Use of Cannabis and Cannabinoids
JAMA
About the Study: This JAMA Patient Page describes conditions and uses of cannabis and cannabinoids, cannabis use disorder, risk of harm, and harm reduction strategies. JAMA Network senior editors selected this as a highlight.
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