Exeter leads rare disease global genetic testing project, improving access and saving young lives

University of Exeter

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An international partnership designed to improve equality in access to genomic medicine for a rare disease has now provided potentially life-saving genetic testing for over 1,100 families across the world.  

Congenital Hyperinsulinism affects the pancreas, causing blood sugar (glucose) levels to drop dangerously low. Genetic testing ensures children are on the best treatment for them.  Importantly, testing can also predict whether a baby has a form of disease in which the entire pancreas produces too much insulin, or a smaller region in the pancreas oversecretes insulin, known as focal disease. Focal disease can be cured by a surgery to remove these cells. Getting this surgery early reduces risk of a brain injury caused by low blood glucose levels. Around 40 per cent of children with congenital hyperinsulinism have neurologic damage resulting from a brain injury, which can be life-threatening in the most severe cases.  

Now, a new correspondence article published in Nature Health marks the success of the Open Hyperinsulinism Genes Project, a partnership between the University of Exeter, the Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, and the US-based charitable organisation Congenital Hyperinsulinism International. Co-founded and led by the mother of a child with the condition, the organisation provides funding for genetic testing for people from countries where such services would otherwise be inaccessible.  

Professor Sarah Flanangan, of the University of Exeter Medical School, leads the research programme. She said: “In Exeter, we are committed to ensuring that every child born with congenital hyperinsulinism, wherever they are in the world, can benefit from rapid, state-of-the-art genetic testing something that has not previously been possible. This project combines Exeter’s world-leading genetics expertise with knowledge of the condition and funding from Congenital Hyperinsulinism International.  

Dr Jayne Houghton, lead Clinical Scientist for this project at the Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust said “This alliance is unlocking access to rapid genomic testing for families across the world, giving children the best chance in life and expanding research to be more inclusive. We believe this model should be expanded to other rare diseases.”  

Exeter provides genetic testing for families across the world who cannot access these services in their own countries. Since its launch in 2018, the Open Hyperinsulinism Genes project has funded comprehensive, rapid genetic testing for over 1,100 families living with the condition, from 63 countries across six continents. The Exeter team have delivered a genetic diagnosis for 593 (52 per cent) of these children. These results confirmed diffuse disease, where the entire pancreas oversecretes insulin, in 438 children, and predicted focal disease, where insulin is secreted from a small region in the pancreas, in 155 children. Those with focal disease can be cured by surgery. For 29 of the infants, a syndromic form of hyperinsulinism was diagnosed, enabling more appropriate clinical monitoring for the development of other symptoms.  

Exeter also leads on research into the condition, inviting all of the families to be involved in genetic studies they could not otherwise access. By recruiting people from populations that are underrepresented in genomic studies, the project increases genetic diversity and strengthens the power of the resulting findings for a global population. Research via the project has already deepened understanding of the genetic basis of congenital hyperinsulinism and advanced knowledge of the biology of insulin secretion and the regulation of genes.   

Global impact inspired by Ben 

While some countries, including the UK, offer government funded genetic testing and treatment at specialist centres, many others do not. In the US most individuals with a confirmed medical diagnosis of congenital hyperinsulinism have genetic testing covered by - insurance.  

Julie Raskin’s son Ben was born with congenital hyperinsulinism. The early signs were missed, and diagnosis took a week, leaving him with a brain injury that caused low vision and epilepsy and learning disabilities and fine motor issues. Her campaign for better diagnosis led her to join with other parents to found Congenital Hyperinsulinism International, of which she is now CEO.  

Julie, from Glen Ridge, New Jersey, “As a mother who knows intimately the effect of congenital hyperinsulinism on my son and entire family, I see the enormous value of understanding its genetic cause. It sets expectations for how the future will unfold; which treatment options to pursue, and which will not be fruitful.”  

“Research and humanitarian components of this project are vital to end preventable and lifelong brain injuries. Our project enables families from every country access to a world-leading laboratory with specific expertise in congenital hyperinsulinism. These families are also counted in research, which is essential to increasing the overall understanding of the condition. By participating, these families are part of the reason scientific research breakthroughs are made, and they can feel pride in knowing they advanced knowledge, and human health more generally.” 

The research is also supported by the Exeter NIHR Biomedical Research Centre.  The paper is titled ‘The Open Hyperinsulinism Genes Project bridges global disparities in access to genomic medicine’, and is published in Nature Health.  

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Journal

Nature Health

DOI

10.1038/s44360-026-00119-9 

Article Title

The Open Hyperinsulinism Genes Project bridges global disparities in access to genomic medicine

 

State-level differences in HPV vaccine uptake among 13- to 17-year-old adolescents

JAMA Pediatrics

About The Study: 

This cross-sectional study demonstrates substantial state-level variation in human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine uptake among U.S. adolescents, even after adjustment for key sociodemographic factors. Several Northeastern states, including Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire, exhibited significantly higher odds of HPV vaccination compared with the reference state, Alabama, whereas multiple Southern states, particularly Mississippi, Georgia, Oklahoma, Kentucky, and West Virginia had significantly lower odds of uptake. 

Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Chinenye Lynette Ejezie, PhD, MPH, email cejezie@towson.edu.

To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/

(doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2026.1338)

Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

#  #  #

Embed this link to provide your readers free access to the full-text article 

 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2026.1338?guestAccessKey=27364266-7508-4b0d-974b-c5adf2563386&utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_content=tfl&utm_term=051126

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Journal

JAMA Pediatrics

 

Expanding Medicaid coverage lowered death rates for young adults with kidney failure

A study led by Brown University researchers suggests that expanded health insurance coverage may significantly improve survival and care quality in this high-risk population.

Brown University

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PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Among young adults with kidney failure, the expansion of Medicaid following the Affordable Care Act signed into law in 2010 was associated with substantial declines in one-year death rates, researchers from Brown University found in a new study.

“The biggest takeaway from this study is that health insurance is critically important for survival among individuals with a high and constant need for medical care,” said lead author Shailender Swaminathan, an adjunct professor of health services, policy and practice at the Brown University School of Public Health.

The researchers found that for young adults with kidney failure, Medicaid expansion led to improvements in pre-dialysis care, increased use of dialysis and longer dialysis sessions — all factors that can improve long-term health outcomes. The study, published in JAMA Pediatrics, focused on young adults for two main reasons.

“Young adults have historically been underinsured, but the Medicaid expansions under the Affordable Care Act were able to address that issue quite quickly,” Swaminathan said. “Thus, we were able to find a large shift in health insurance coverage for young adults before and after Medicaid expansions. Second, unlike for older adults, benefits of Medicaid for young adults can potentially accrue over multiple years.”

Prior to the Affordable Care Act, young adults had the highest rates of uninsurance of any age group in the United States. This was driven by several factors, including the loss of childhood eligibility for Medicaid coverage at age 19 and disproportionate employment in jobs that do not offer health insurance.

In 2010, the Affordable Care Act expanded Medicaid coverage for lower-income adults and required insurers to cover dependents on their parents’ employer-provided insurance plans until age 26. As a result, uninsurance rates for young adults ages 19 to 25 fell from 31.5% in 2009 to 13.1% in 2023 — the biggest change among any age group.

To find out how the expansion affected the mortality rates of young adults, the Brown research team zeroed in on the high-risk population of young adults with kidney failure, whose death from heart disease is 500 times greater than that of their peers. The team studied 7,139 patients, comparing young adults affected by Medicaid expansion (ages 19 to 23) with adolescents whose eligibility was unchanged (ages 14 to 18). The study period extended from 2010 through 2019.

They found that one-year mortality among 19- to 23-year-olds initiating dialysis declined by a statistically significant 1.8 percentage points after insurance expansion.

Health insurance coverage and access is one of the central health policy issues currently facing the country, said study author Dr. Amal Trivedi, a professor of health services, policy and practice at Brown. Between 5 million and 10 million Americans are projected to lose Medicaid coverage by 2028 as a result of H.R.1 (the One Big Beautiful Bill Act) signed into law in July 2025.

“As we approach these issues, it’s important to keep in mind that Medicaid expansion was associated with substantial reductions in mortality among young adults with kidney failure initiating dialysis,” Trivedi said. “This suggests that expanded health insurance coverage may improve survival and care quality in this high-risk population.”

The research was funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (R01DK113298, R01DK129388) and the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities (R01MD017080).

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Journal

JAMA Pediatrics

DOI

10.1001/jamapediatrics.2026.1530 

Method of Research

Data/statistical analysis

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Medicaid Expansion and 1-Year Mortality Among Young Adults Initiating Dialysis

Article Publication Date

11-May-2026

 

Turning Camellia shell waste into a dual nutrient trap for wastewater cleanup

Maximum Academic Press

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The study showed that the engineered material, named BC5-500, achieved strong adsorption performance, especially for phosphate, and maintained useful activity even after repeated reuse cycles and in real swine wastewater.

Nitrogen and phosphorus pollution remains a major environmental challenge because large inputs from fertilizers, domestic discharge, and industrial and agricultural wastewater can destabilize aquatic ecosystems and trigger eutrophication. Adsorption has become a widely studied treatment route because it is simple, fast, and efficient, while biochar is especially attractive due to its porous structure, surface functional groups, and tunable chemistry. Previous studies have improved nutrient capture by modifying biochar with metals such as magnesium, iron, and aluminum, but adsorption performance still varies widely with feedstock and modification method. In this context, calcium-based modification is especially promising because calcium is abundant, relatively safe, inexpensive, and has strong affinity for ammonium and phosphate. At the same time, the rapidly expanding Camellia oleifera industry generates large volumes of shell waste that are difficult to dispose of, creating a practical need to convert this residue into higher-value materials.

A study (DOI:10.48130/bchax-0026-0002) published in Biochar X on 30 January 2026 by Anping Wang’s & Jie Wang’s team, Guizhou Normal University & Qiandongnan Agriculture Science Institute, reports that Ca(OH)2-modified shell biochar can effectively remove ammonium and phosphate through different but complementary chemical pathways.

To create the adsorbent, the team first cleaned, dried, ground, and pyrolyzed Camellia oleifera shells at 500 °C to obtain the base biochar BC-500, then mixed it with calcium hydroxide, washed and dried the product, and subjected it to a second pyrolysis step to produce BC5-500. They screened nine modified biochars and found BC5-500 to be the best performer, reaching adsorption capacities of 26.66 mg·g−1 for ammonium and 186.18 mg·g−1 for phosphate in preliminary tests. The material was then characterized by SEM, BET surface area analysis, FT-IR, XRD, and XPS. These analyses showed that calcium modification roughened the biochar surface, increased pore volume and average pore diameter, introduced calcium-containing active phases, and created more reactive sites for nutrient capture. Adsorption tests further showed that ammonium uptake was favored under alkaline conditions, peaking at pH 11.0, while phosphate uptake was strongest in acidic conditions, peaking at pH 2.0. Kinetic modeling showed that both adsorption processes followed the pseudo-second-order model, indicating chemisorption-dominated behavior. Isotherm analysis suggested that ammonium adsorption involved both monolayer and multilayer behavior, whereas phosphate adsorption was better described by the Freundlich model, consistent with multilayer adsorption on a heterogeneous surface. Temperature experiments showed that phosphate adsorption declined as temperature increased, while ammonium adsorption first decreased and then rose at higher temperatures. Mechanistic evidence from FT-IR, XRD, and XPS indicated that ammonium removal was driven mainly by ion exchange, whereas phosphate removal relied on both ion exchange and, more importantly, calcium-phosphate precipitation, including formation of hydroxyapatite-like products. Reuse tests showed that the biochar still retained substantial adsorption after five cycles. In actual swine wastewater, ammonium removal was limited, likely because of low concentration and competition from coexisting contaminants, but phosphate removal remained highly effective, reaching 97.73%, demonstrating particular promise for phosphorus-rich waste streams.

Overall, the study presents a practical example of waste-to-resource engineering: an abundant agricultural by-product was converted into a functional adsorbent capable of targeting two problematic nutrients in polluted water. Although its phosphate removal was much stronger than its ammonium performance in complex real wastewater, the material combined affordability, reusability, mechanistic clarity, and applicability to livestock effluents. The work therefore offers a useful foundation for developing biochar-based nutrient management technologies that link agricultural residue utilization with cleaner water and more sustainable resource recovery.

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References

DOI

10.48130/bchax-0026-0002

Original Source URL

https://doi.org/10.48130/bchax-0026-0002

Funding information

This work is supported by the project of the Guizhou Provincial Department of Science and Technology (Grant Nos Qiankehe Zhicheng [2023] 078, Qiankehe Jichu-ZK [2024] zhongdian 055, and Qiankehe Pingtai-KXJZ [2025] 023), and Projects of Forestry Research in Guizhou Province (Grant No. GUI[2022] TSLY07).

About Biochar X

Biochar X is an open access, online-only journal aims to transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries by providing a multidisciplinary platform for the exchange of cutting-edge research in both fundamental and applied aspects of biochar. The journal is dedicated to supporting the global biochar research community by offering an innovative, efficient, and professional outlet for sharing new findings and perspectives. Its core focus lies in the discovery of novel insights and the development of emerging applications in the rapidly growing field of biochar science.

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DOI

10.48130/bchax-0026-0002 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Ca(OH)2-modified Camellia oleifera shell biochar: preparation, characterization, and adsorption of NH4+ and PO43−

Turning orange waste into a fast, reusable dye trap for wastewater

Maximum Academic Press

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The optimized material, Fe/Zn-OPBC500, reached an adsorption capacity of 237.53 mg g⁻¹ and removed 96.8% of the dye within 60 minutes. It also maintained strong performance after repeated reuse and under a broad range of pH and common ionic conditions.

Synthetic dyes remain a major challenge in industrial wastewater treatment because they are highly soluble, structurally stable, and difficult to degrade once released into aquatic systems. Among them, methylene blue is widely used in textiles, staining, indicators, and pharmaceuticals, making its removal environmentally important. Adsorption has emerged as one of the most practical treatment approaches because it is simple, cost-effective, and efficient, but conventional biochar often suffers from limited adsorption capacity and poor structural optimization. Previous work has shown that ZnCl₂ activation can improve pore development, while Fe-based modification can introduce reactive adsorption sites. However, single-modification strategies usually cannot optimize pore architecture and surface chemistry at the same time. This gap led the researchers to investigate whether co-activation with ZnCl₂ and FeCl₃ could produce a more effective orange peel-derived biochar for dye removal.

A study (DOI:10.48130/bchax-0026-0001) published in Biochar X on 30 January 2026 by Lei Zhang’s & Junkang Guo’s team, Shaanxi University of Science & Technology, reports that Fe/Zn co-modification of orange peel produced a biochar with markedly enhanced porosity, richer active surface chemistry, rapid and high-capacity methylene blue adsorption, and strong regeneration performance.

To build the adsorbent, the team first washed, dried, ground, and sieved orange peel, then impregnated the biomass with FeCl₃ and ZnCl₂ before pyrolyzing it under nitrogen at controlled temperatures. They compared materials prepared at 500 °C and 900 °C, along with unmodified controls, and then characterized the products using SEM, XRD, Raman spectroscopy, FTIR, XPS, and nitrogen physisorption. These analyses showed that the dual-activation strategy reconstructed the biochar into a three-dimensional hierarchical porous structure while introducing iron oxide species and preserving oxygen-containing functional groups. Compared with pristine biochar, the optimized Fe/Zn-OPBC500 displayed a 16.1-fold increase in specific surface area and a 5.7-fold rise in total pore volume, creating a structure better suited for mass transfer and dye capture. The adsorption experiments then linked structure to performance. Under standard conditions, Fe/Zn-OPBC500 achieved 194.5 mg g⁻¹ at the selected dosage and reached a 96.8% removal rate within 60 minutes, outperforming Fe/Zn-OPBC900 and the pristine samples. Kinetic modeling showed that adsorption followed a pseudo-second-order model, indicating chemisorption-dominated behavior, while isotherm fitting favored the Langmuir model, consistent with predominantly monolayer adsorption. The maximum adsorption capacity reached 237.53 mg g⁻¹, and thermodynamic analysis indicated that the process was spontaneous. Performance also remained strong across pH 3 to 11, with adsorption increasing as the surface became more negatively charged above the point of zero charge. Tests with coexisting ions showed that multivalent cations such as Fe³⁺ and Ca²⁺ interfered more strongly than Na⁺, while anions had weaker effects overall. In regeneration experiments, the material retained more than 100 mg g⁻¹ over seven cycles, confirming good operational stability. Post-adsorption spectroscopic analysis further revealed that methylene blue removal arose from multiple cooperating pathways, including electrostatic attraction, hydrogen bonding, π–π interactions, pore confinement, covalent amide-like bonding, and surface complexation with iron sites. Together, these results showed that the material’s performance did not depend on a single factor, but on the synergy between engineered pore structure and multifunctional surface chemistry.

Overall, the study shows that orange peel waste can be converted into a robust, reusable, and high-performance adsorbent for dye-contaminated water. By combining accessible feedstock, moderate-temperature synthesis, fast kinetics, strong capacity, and multicycle reuse, the work advances both wastewater treatment and agricultural waste valorization.

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References

DOI

10.48130/bchax-0026-0001

Original Source URL

https://doi.org/10.48130/bchax-0026-0001

Funding information

This work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (42207464), Young Talent Fund of Xi'an Association for Science and Technology (959202413043), Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi Provincial Department of Education (24JK0353), Key Research and Development Program of Shaanxi (2025SF-YBXM-511), and the Key Industrial Chain Project of Shaanxi Province (2024NC-ZDCYL-02-15).

About Biochar X

Biochar X is an open access, online-only journal aims to transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries by providing a multidisciplinary platform for the exchange of cutting-edge research in both fundamental and applied aspects of biochar. The journal is dedicated to supporting the global biochar research community by offering an innovative, efficient, and professional outlet for sharing new findings and perspectives. Its core focus lies in the discovery of novel insights and the development of emerging applications in the rapidly growing field of biochar science.

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DOI

10.48130/bchax-0026-0001 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Hierarchical porous biochar with Fe/Zn co-activation derived from orange waste: enhanced methylene blue adsorption and mechanistic insights

Internal-heating pyrolyzer produces cleaner, agriculture-ready biochar

Maximum Academic Press

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Using reed straw pellets as feedstock, the team found that the system could produce biochar with low toxic risk, strong functional properties, and relatively high energy recovery.

Biochar has attracted growing attention as a carbon-rich material produced by slow pyrolysis in oxygen-limited conditions. It can help stabilize carbon for long periods, reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and improve soils because of its porous structure and nutrient-retention potential. At the same time, biochar production can generate harmful contaminants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, making cleanliness an important factor in real-world application. Previous studies have mostly focused on batch slow pyrolysis with external heating, while less is known about continuous, internally heated moving-bed systems, even though these systems may offer better heat transfer, lower costs, and stronger industrial potential.

A study (DOI:10.48130/bchax-0026-0011) published in Biochar X on 13 March 2026 by Hongbin Cong’s team, Key Laboratory of Energy Resource Utilization from Agriculture Residue, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, points to a practical route for optimizing industrial biochar production, especially for agricultural uses such as soil improvement, carbon sequestration, and cleaner biomass utilization.

The researchers used reed straw pellets to test an internally heated cigar-type slow pyrolysis system designed as a quasi-moving-bed reactor. In this setup, part of the biomass is burned to provide heat for pyrolysis, while switching the air inlets and gas outlets enables either updraft or downdraft operation. The team examined three pyrolysis temperatures—550, 600, and 650 °C—and also adjusted air distribution rate and cooling mode to compare high and low airflow as well as water cooling and air insulation. The resulting biochars were assessed using a wide range of indicators, including fixed carbon, ash, atomic ratios, specific surface area, pH, cation exchange capacity, electrical conductivity, PAH concentration, toxic equivalence quantity, and energy conversion efficiency. The results showed that some conventional properties remained relatively stable, while others were strongly affected by operating conditions. Fixed carbon content ranged from 38.46% to 44.02%, and the H/C and O/C ratios indicated good long-term carbon stability. Among all indicators, specific surface area was especially sensitive to pyrolysis conditions and increased with temperature. At 650 °C, biochar produced under downdraft, low air distribution, and air insulation showed surface area values 1.46, 2.26, and 3.00 times higher, respectively, than those produced under updraft, high air distribution, and water cooling. By contrast, updraft operation, high air distribution, and water cooling generally improved cation exchange capacity, an important trait for retaining nutrients in soil. Cleanliness was another key finding. PAH concentrations ranged from 0.03 to 0.44 mg/kg, and toxic equivalence values were only 0.39–5.68 µg/kg, both far below the relevant international limits cited by the authors. Still, PAH levels rose significantly under high air distribution and water cooling. At 550 °C, high airflow produced 2.66 times more PAHs than low airflow, while at 650 °C, water cooling generated 6.89 times more PAHs than air insulation. Meanwhile, syngas heating value increased with temperature, and average energy conversion efficiency reached about 75.31%.

Overall, the study shows that internally heated slow pyrolysis can produce biochar that is both functionally useful and environmentally clean, but performance depends strongly on process design. Downdraft operation favored specific surface area, while updraft operation offered some advantages in cation exchange capacity, energy efficiency, and production capacity. The authors conclude that future optimization should balance biochar quality with conversion efficiency to match different agricultural applications and support larger-scale industrial deployment.

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References

DOI

10.48130/bchax-0026-0011

Original Source URL

https://doi.org/10.48130/bchax-0026-0011

Funding information

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Project (Grant No. 2024YFD170110401).

About Biochar X

Biochar X is an open access, online-only journal aims to transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries by providing a multidisciplinary platform for the exchange of cutting-edge research in both fundamental and applied aspects of biochar. The journal is dedicated to supporting the global biochar research community by offering an innovative, efficient, and professional outlet for sharing new findings and perspectives. Its core focus lies in the discovery of novel insights and the development of emerging applications in the rapidly growing field of biochar science.

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DOI

10.48130/bchax-0026-0011 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Influence of cigar-type slow pyrolysis conditions on the physiochemical properties and conversion efficiency of biochar

‘Nature’s algorithm’ found in Chinese money plants

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

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image: 

The Chinese money plant, seen here against the backdrop of Cold Spring Harbor, is helping CSHL biologists uncover the mathematical formulas underlying nature itself. 

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Credit: Nick Wurm/CSHL

Look up at the clouds. What do you see? A sailboat? A seahorse? Your great-aunt Rosemary? As humans, we’re prone to seeing patterns where they don’t actually exist. This behavior is so common there’s a name for it: apophenia. But sometimes, those patterns really do exist. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Associate Professor Saket Navlakha specializes in finding them.

Voronoi diagrams are geometric patterns used to divide space into regions. Each region contains a given central point. For example, when dividing a town into school districts (regions), a Voronoi diagram guarantees that all students living within a district are closer to that district’s school (central point) than to any other school. “Voronoi diagrams have been used for centuries in a variety of applications ranging from city planning to network design,” Navlakha says.

Voronoi-like patterns are common in nature—giraffe stripes, for example. However, the keyword there is “like.” The difference between textbook Voronoi patterns and what we see in nature is that the latter usually lacks visible “schools.” Now, Navlakha and former graduate student Cici Zheng have found an exception in Pilea peperomioides, the Chinese money plant.

Chinese money plants are perennials native to China’s Yunnan and Sichuan provinces. You may have received one as a housewarming gift from great-aunt Rosemary. Its round, flat leaves feature prominent pores called hydathodes, surrounded by looping reticulate veins that transport water and nutrients to and from the leaf. By mapping Chinese money plants’ pores and veins, Navlakha and Zheng discovered a naturally occurring Voronoi pattern.

The team then turned to world-renowned scientist Przemysław Prusinkiewicz, who has studied vein patterning for decades. Together, they worked out the “natural algorithm” used to form looping veins around central pores in Chinese money plants’ leaves.

“Just as humans have to solve problems to survive, the same goes for other organisms,” says Zheng, now a postdoc at the Allen Institute. “But unlike humans, plants cannot explicitly measure distances! Instead, they rely on local biological interactions to achieve the same Voronoi solution.”

“We think of these algorithms in nature as an explanation for how organisms will behave and as a way to try to make sense of the world,” Navlakha says. “This example is a nice merger of classical geometry, modern plant biology, and computer science.”

“It’s remarkable how mathematical yet another aspect of plant form and patterning turns out to be,” Prusinkiewicz adds. “For decades, the question of how reticulate veins form has remained open, and finally we have a plausible answer” in Chinese money plants’ Voronoi patterns.

Navlakha and Zheng hope exploring this phenomenon can help tell us how plants work out complex problems in nature. Understanding that may provide a new framework for making sense of the math underlying evolution, development, and life itself.

Left: The round, flat leaf of Pilea Peperomioides, the Chinese money plant. Right: A computer model of a Voronoi diagram traces the leaf’s central hydathode pores and looping reticulate veins.

Credit

Navlakha lab/CSHL

Journal

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-026-71768-3 

Article Title

Reticulate leaf venation in Pilea peperomioides is a Voronoi diagram