Helping corals survive future heatwaves requires strong and strategic trait selection

Newcastle University

Facebook

XLinkedInWeChatBlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

 

image: 

One year old pedigree tracked corals growing in an ocean nursery. 

view more 

Credit: Dr Liam Lachs

Assisted evolution could help corals survive future heatwaves, but careful trait choice and strong repeated selection will be needed for it to be effective.

As global temperatures rise, marine heatwaves are becoming more frequent and severe, driving coral bleaching and mortality. While some coral populations are already showing signs of natural adaptation, researchers warn that these changes are unlikely to keep pace with future warming.

A new study published today (16 April) in Current Biology explores whether host assisted evolution, which aims to accelerate natural adaptation rates of corals, could help them survive future heatwaves and what it would take to achieve required tolerance gains.

The international research team, led by Newcastle University, have created a unique, pedigree-tracked coral population over the last eight years, allowing them to map family relationships and measure how multiple key traits—such as growth, reproduction and survival—are inherited.

By combining information on multiple traits for each coral, their family relationships and advanced statistical modelling, the scientists were able to estimate each coral’s genetic merit for heat tolerance and other traits, and the genetic links among traits, insights that go beyond what can be simply observed.

Dr James Guest, Reader in Coral Reef Ecology at Newcastle University and the principal investigator of the project supporting this study, said: “Developing and maintaining this pedigree-tracked coral population has driven a step change in our ability to identify which traits to select for to enhance tolerance under future climate stress. Being able to produce corals from parental colonies with known histories and well-characterised traits—and then observe how this genetic information influences offspring performance—has significantly advanced our understanding of how assisted evolution can be effectively implemented to conserve coral reefs.”

The results show that assisted evolution methods targeting the coral host—rather than its symbionts—will require choosing the right traits and repeatedly selecting corals over multiple generations to strengthen those traits.

Selection must directly target long-term heatwave survival, or traits that have a strong genetically based correlation to heatwave survival. To keep pace with climate change, efforts will need to implement very strong selection, choosing the top 1-5% most tolerant corals as broodstock. And this process will have to be repeated over multiple generations to achieve desired evolutionary benefits. Such intense selection introduces other challenges, including the maintenance of genetic diversity and practicality of scaling up selection efforts.

Study lead author, Dr Liam Lachs, a former Postdoctoral Research Associate at Newcastle University’s School of Natural and Environmental Sciences and current Research Fellow at University of Queensland, Australia, said: “Local adaptation involves more than just heat tolerance. Traits like growth, reproduction, calcification, tissue biomass, and symbiont flexibility all contribute to overall fitness. If improving heat tolerance came at the cost of these traits, it could undermine population viability. But encouragingly, we found no detectable negative genetic correlations among any traits; good news for assisted evolution interventions.”

Not a silver bullet

The researchers stress that assisted evolution is not a substitute for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, which remains essential to limit ocean warming.

However, as global mitigation efforts continue, targeted local interventions could play an important supporting role at certain scales. Strategic conservation approaches, including assisted evolution, may help key coral species adapt and persist in a rapidly changing climate.

Study lead author, Dr Adriana Humanes, a Research Associate at Newcastle University, said: “Our results show that increasing coral heat tolerance can, in principle, deliver meaningful gains for coral persistence. But success will depend on choosing the right traits and strong, sustained selection. While reducing greenhouse gas emissions is still the main priority to mitigate the warming corals face, other mitigation efforts such as assisted evolution will be crucial to help key species adapt and persist in our rapidly warming world.”

Reference 

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2026.03.055

---

 

---

Journal

Current Biology

DOI

10.1016/j.cub.2026.03.055 

Method of Research

Computational simulation/modeling

Article Title

Choice of traits defines the scope for assisted evolution of corals under climate change

Article Publication Date

17-Apr-2026

 

Want to restore oyster reefs? Find a site where they don’t wash away or become buried under the sand!

Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research

Facebook

XLinkedInWeChatBlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

Disappearing reefs

Oyster reefs were once abundant in the North Sea and other, so-called marginal seas at the edges of continental shelves. They hosted a significant biodiversity but have disappeared from 97 % of their original locations. Therefore, various restoration initiatives are undertaken, often with limited success.

Deep experiments

In an experimental setting at a depth of 32 m, in the Gemini wind park (85 km north of the Wadden islands), Zhiyuan and colleagues placed oysters on a rack 0,5 m above the seabed, where they were monitored for filtering activity. Also, oysters were placed on the seabed, to see if they were displaced or buried by currents or sediments. Lastly, they placed oysters in an experimental ‘mesocosm’, to monitor how they survived burial.

Keep on gaping

The experiments showed that oysters kept above the seabed survived well, even during storms, as shown by continuous ‘gaping’, showing filtering activity. But oysters on the soft seabed faced a different reality: stronger near-bed hydrodynamics could dislodge them, while rapid sediment accumulation could bury them beyond recovery. 

Practical implications

The results of these experiments have several practical implications, Zhiyuan says. “First, it is very important to look at potential short-term physical disturbance, when introducing new oysters to the seabed. Water quality is not the only thing to look at”, he warns. “Oysters may remain physiologically healthy, but still fail, because they are dislodged by strong near-bed hydrodynamics or buried by rapid sediment accretion before a reef can establish.” 

Find promising sites

To help select potentially successful sites for reintroduction, the paper describes thresholds at which the risks from hydrodynamic-induced loss and burial-caused mortality become critical. If burial seems likely, only oysters that are placed above the sediment may succeed, while placement in prefab reef structures is an option in areas where dislodgement is likely. “This helps move restoration planning away from trial and error and toward a more risk-informed strategy”, Zhiyuan says. “Our study suggests that the key is not only choosing the right place but also choosing the right method for that place.”

---

Journal

One Earth

DOI

10.1016/j.oneear.2026.101679 

Article Publication Date

17-Apr-2026

 

Engineered dual-bacterial sensors turn chemical signals into electricity

Rice researchers develop e-COSENS to detect analytes important to human and environmental health

Rice University

Facebook

X
BlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

 

image: 

A close-up of Siliang Li manipulating the e-COSENs setup. 

view more 

Credit: Jared Jones/Rice University

Bacterial sensors usually rely on emitting light to transfer information about what they’re sensing, but that method isn’t practical in many settings. That’s why most information transmission is done via electricity. And while electricity-emitting bacteria exist, manipulating them into useful sensors has been quite challenging. Rice University professor Caroline Ajo-Franklin’s group, working in collaboration with researchers from Tufts University and Baylor College of Medicine, recently developed a flexible bioelectrical sensor system called electroactive co-culture sensing system (e-COSENS). The study was published in Nature Biotechnology. 

“Bioelectrical sensing is by no means a new concept,” said Ajo-Franklin, the Ralph and Dorothy Looney Professor of Biosciences and corresponding author on this paper. “But e-COSENS is the first system that allows us to easily engineer bioelectronic sensors in a modular manner, like assembling Legos, allowing us to potentially use them to monitor everything from human health to environmental contaminates.”

Bioelectrical sensing requires bacteria that produce electricity and are easy for researchers to manipulate to respond to different substances. Ideally, the bacteria would be able to live in a variety of different places so that the system could be used in environments ranging from rivers to milk.  

The challenge was finding bacteria that met all three conditions. E. coli, for example, is simple to engineer but doesn’t produce electricity. L. plantarum, a common food bacterium, produces electricity using a molecule called quinone but is incredibly difficult to engineer. 

“Instead of forcing a single bacterium to do everything, we split the job between two bacteria,” said Siliang Li, the first author on this study and postdoctoral fellow. “That division of labor is what makes e-COSENS so flexible and powerful.” 

The key to e-COSENS is quinone, the molecule L. plantarum uses to create electricity. L. plantarum cannot create its own quinone; it has to be provided by the environment. This means the quinone can be used as a signal, or trigger, to turn electricity on or off.

The researchers revealed that they could easily manipulate bacteria like E. coli, a bioengineering workhorse, to make quinone only in the presence of a specific substance called an analyte. Once E. coli released the quinone in the environment, L. plantarum would use it to send an electrical signal, which could be read by an electrode — in this case, a current meter. 

To test this system, the researchers designed systems to look for four different analytes in four different environments. They used E. coli to sense heavy metal ions in bayou water and inflammation markers in artificial saliva, and L. lactis, another quinone-producing bacterium, to sense antimicrobial peptides in human fecal-derived samples provided by Baylor and an antibiotic in milk from the grocery store. They placed each sample and bacterial systems into individual reactors connected to current meters. Within a few hours, all four current meters showed an electrical charge, revealing the bacteria were responding to the analytes — some in as few as 20 minutes. 

All four versions of the system were successful, but the large reactors they used wouldn’t easily translate from the lab to the outdoors. Luckily, their collaborators at Tufts had a solution: a compact electronic disk roughly the size of a quarter which can be paired with commercially available digital multimeters. 

“This simplified hardware dramatically lowers the barrier to using bioelectronic sensors outside the lab and opens possibilities for low-cost, field-ready diagnostics,” Li said. The researchers had also identified multiple other bacteria that could either send or receive a quinone signal, increasing the number of possible environments e-COSENS could be used in. 

“The strength of e-COSENS is the flexibility derived from sharing the work across multiple cells,” said Ajo-Franklin, director of the Rice Synthetic Biology Institute, which focuses on supporting interdisciplinary research. “In the same manner, the success of this research hinged on sharing expertise and work among my research group and our partners, Duolong Zhu and Robert Britton at Baylor and Kundan Saha and Sameer Sonkusale at Tufts.” 

This work was supported by the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (RR190063) and the Army Research Office (W911NF-22-1-0239). Two of the authors filed a provisional patent entitled “Compositions and Methods of Bioelectronic Sensing” on Aug. 12, 2024 (No. 63/682,083), covering the design criteria of e-COSENS. A subsequent appendance was filed on June 23, 2025 (No. 63/828,835), covering the use of the MFC device with a multimeter for electrical signal detection, as well as a provisional patent entitled “Nanosheet Clay Cation Exchange Membrane for Microbial Fuel Cell” on March 4, 2025 (No. 63/766,456), covering the fabrication and application of the clay membrane.

 

Siliang Li adjusts the e-COSENs setup

Credit

Jared Jones/Rice University

 

---

Journal

Nature Biotechnology

DOI

10.1038/s41587-026-03075-7 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Cells

Article Title

Synthetic microbial co-cultures for modular bioelectronic sensing in diverse environments

Article Publication Date

17-Apr-2026

 

Houston Methodist study finds blood pressure drug effective for treating antibiotic-resistant bacteria

Houston Methodist

LinkedIn
MessageWhatsAppEmail

Infections from antibiotic-resistant bacteria are difficult to treat and are responsible for over 2.8 million infections and more than 35,000 deaths in the U.S. each year. A new study in Nature Communications reports that a drug used to lower blood pressure could also be the basis of a promising new treatment for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
 

“MRSA commonly causes infections in both hospitals and the community. It infects people in different ways and can survive even when antibiotics are used, which makes treatment extremely difficult,” said corresponding author Eleftherios Mylonakis, M.D., Ph.D., chair, Houston Methodist Charles W. Duncan Jr. Department of Medicine. “Scientists around the world are looking at various ways to provide treatment options outside of established antibiotics. The high cost of developing new drugs, and the time it takes to do so, led our team to explore the possibility of using existing medications, approved for other uses, to treat bacterial infections.”
 

Researchers were interested in determining if existing drugs can change the physical properties of bacterial membranes, which can weaken the bacteria and make the bacteria more susceptible to treatment. The blood pressure drug Candesartan cilexetil (CC), a common and inexpensive medication already used clinically, was identified as having this potential.

In the lab, Dr. Nagendran Tharmalingam, first author of the study, and a team of researchers and collaborators were able to prove that the drug effectively fights MRSA by disrupting its cell membrane and interfering with cell function. It not only killed MRSA bacteria at different growth stages, but also reduced the formation of biofilms, which are clusters of the bacteria that are more difficult to treat. By weakening the bacteria and stopping its growth, researchers showed that the drug has the potential to be a tool in the arsenal of treatment options for antibiotic-resistant infections.

Other collaborators on the study included Robert Wilson-Kovacs and Orlando Acevedo from the University of Miami; Suelen Scarpa de Mello and Michael Gilmore from Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary; Philip Rupert Baldwin and Steven Ludtke from Baylor College of Medicine; Harikrishna Sekar Jayanthan from Vanderbilt University; Kulandaisamy Arulsamy from Boston Children’s Hospital; Rajmohan Rajmuthiah,. Fernanda Cristina Possamai Rossatto, Katherine Manz and Kurt Pennell from Brown University; Joseph DeGiorgis from Providence College and Frederick Ausubel from Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital.
 

For more information about Houston Methodist, visit houstonmethodist.org

---

Journal

Nature Communications

Article Title

Candesartan cilexetil disrupts methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus membrane and potentiates gentamicin and polymyxin B activity

 

New guidance from ACP says all average-risk females aged 50-74 should undergo biennial mammography screening for breast cancer

ACP also offers screening advice for females aged 40-49, frequency of screening, discontinuing screening, and females with dense breasts

American College of Physicians

LinkedInWeChat

SAN FRANCISCO, April 17, 2026 – New guidance from the American College of Physicians (ACP) says all asymptomatic, average-risk females ages 50 to 74 should receive biennial screening mammography for breast cancer. Females between the ages of 40 and 49 should discuss with their doctor their risk for breast cancer and the benefits and harms of screening. This is because harms of screening such as false positive results, psychological distress because of it, overdiagnosis, overtreatment, additional testing, and radiation exposure may outweigh the uncertain benefits in this population. ACP's advice, "Screening for Breast Cancer in Asymptomatic, Average-Risk Adult Females: A Guidance Statement from the American College of Physicians", is published in Annals of Internal Medicine. 

ACP also provides guidance on when to discontinue breast cancer screening and how to approach screening for females with dense breasts. ACP says that asymptomatic, average‑risk females who are 75 years or older, or those with a limited life expectancy, discuss stopping routine screening with their doctor. This is because the benefits of screening beyond age 74 are reduced or uncertain, while potential harms, such as overdiagnosis, become more likely with increasing age. For asymptomatic, average‑risk females who have dense breasts, ACP advises doctors to consider supplemental digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT). Decisions should consider potential benefits and harms, radiation exposure, availability, patient values and preferences, and cost. However, ACP advises against using supplemental MRI or ultrasound for screening in this population. 

The guidance statement was developed by ACP’s Clinical Guidelines Committee which defined average risk as females who do not have a personal history of breast cancer or diagnosis of a high-risk breast lesion, a genetic mutation such as BRCA 1 or 2 that is known to increase risk, another familial breast cancer risk syndrome, or a history of high-dose radiation therapy to the chest at a young age. 

“Screening for breast cancer is essential and should be guided by the best available evidence" said Jason M. Goldman, MD, MACP, President of ACP. "ACP developed this guidance to provide physicians and females with the information they need to make breast cancer screening decisions, including when to start and discontinue, how often to screen, and which methods to use for screening."   

---

Journal

Annals of Internal Medicine

DOI

10.7326/ANNALS-25-05116 

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Screening for Breast Cancer in Asymptomatic, Average-Risk Adult Females: A Guidance Statement from the American College of Physicians

Article Publication Date

17-Apr-2026

Breast cancer special issue spotlights AI while widening the view of precision care

China Anti-Cancer Association

Facebook

XLinkedInWeChatBlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

 

image: 

AI empowering breast cancer care.

view more 

Credit: Cancer Biology & Medicine

Artificial intelligence (AI) is emerging as a powerful force in breast cancer research, but the future of personalized care will not be written by algorithms alone. A new special issue of Cancer Biology & Medicine brings together reviews, perspectives, editorials, and original research that examine how AI is beginning to support precision oncology while also highlighting wider advances in diagnostics, therapeutics, translational science, and clinical strategy. By placing AI alongside broader breast cancer research progress, the collection offers a more balanced and realistic picture of how the field is evolving toward more individualized care.

Breast cancer remains one of oncology's most complex diseases because of its biological heterogeneity, variable treatment responses, and rapidly changing therapeutic landscape. AI has drawn growing attention for its potential to improve prediction, classification, and treatment planning, especially as clinical, imaging, and molecular data become more interconnected. Yet progress in breast cancer medicine is also being driven by novel therapeutic modalities, precision diagnostics and subtyping, and translational oncology. A meaningful view of the field therefore requires attention not only to digital tools, but also to the scientific and clinical advances shaping care more broadly. Based on these challenges and opportunities, deeper exploration is needed into how AI and broader breast cancer research can move forward together.

Published on March 15, 2026 in Cancer Biology & Medicine, the special issue (DOI: https://www.cancerbiomed.org/content/23/3)“Harnessing Artificial Intelligence for Personalized Breast Cancer Treatment” was guest-edited by Professor Zefei Jiang of the Department of Oncology at the Chinese PLA General Hospital. The issue reflects a wider landscape than its title alone may suggest. Alongside articles focused directly on AI in breast cancer, the collection also features work on precision immunotherapy, antibody–drug conjugates, engineered cell therapies, multi-omic analysis, digital pathology, and clinical trial methodology.

The issue’s AI-related contributions show where computational approaches are already gaining traction. A review on AI in breast cancer surveys current applications and advances, while another article examines the role of radiomics in predicting response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy. A multicenter original study extends that direction by using multimodal AI to predict PIK3CA mutation status from digital pathology and clinical data. Another study applies deep learning to dynamic optical coherence tomography for label-free diagnosis of lymph node metastasis. Beyond AI, the collection also features translational studies on dual therapeutic targets in luminal androgen receptor triple-negative breast cancer, and metabolic engineering of SLC38A2 to enhance CAR-macrophage antitumor activity, collectively showing how personalized breast cancer care is being shaped by converging advances across multiple domains.

“This collection shows that the next phase of breast cancer research is not about choosing between AI and traditional oncology advances,” the issue suggests. “It is about learning how to connect computational tools with stronger biological insight, better therapies, and clinically meaningful research design.” That balance is what makes the special issue especially timely: AI is presented as an important enabler of precision care, but not as a substitute for the therapeutic, translational, and methodological progress that continues to drive the field.

The broader message of the issue is clear. Personalized breast cancer treatment will likely depend on a more integrated research model, one that combines computational prediction with deeper molecular understanding, better treatment strategies, and stronger clinical evaluation. By bringing AI-centered work together with studies on advances in biological discovery and therapeutic innovation, Cancer Biology & Medicine offers readers a timely snapshot of a field moving toward more precise and more connected care.

For more details and to access the full special issue, visit Cancer Biology & Medicine online.
Artificial intelligence empowering precision diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer: advancing global clinical practice with regional insights
DOI: https://doi.org/10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2026.0018
Balancing global standards and regional nuances in breast cancer care: the role of guidelines, clinical research, precision medicine, and artificial intelligence in advancing quality of care for patients worldwide
DOI: https://doi.org/10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2025.0674
Precision immunotherapy for breast cancer: from biomarkers to clinical practice
DOI: https://doi.org/10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2025.0815
Advances in TROP2-targeted antibody-drug conjugates for breast cancer therapy: into the new era
DOI: https://doi.org/10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2025.0504
Protocol and statistical designs in classic clinical research—toripalimab series trial analysis
DOI: https://doi.org/10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2025.0759
The role of radiomics in predicting the response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer
DOI: https://doi.org/10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2025.0655
Artificial intelligence in breast cancer: applications and advancements
DOI: https://doi.org/10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2025.0704
Integrative multi-omic analysis identified ERBB2 mutations and senescence-driven immune suppression as dual therapeutic targets in LAR triple-negative breast cancer
DOI: https://doi.org/10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2025.0691
Metabolic engineering of SLC38A2 reprograms glutamine utilization and enhances CAR-macrophage antitumor function in solid tumors
DOI: https://doi.org/10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2025.0775
Virtual histology imaging of lymph nodes via dynamic full-field optical coherence tomography and deep learning to differentiate metastasis
DOI: https://doi.org/10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2025.0747
Multimodal artificial intelligence predicts PIK3CA mutation in breast cancer from digital pathology and clinical data: a multicenter study
DOI: https://doi.org/10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2025.0771

###

DOI

https://doi.org/10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2026.0018
https://doi.org/10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2025.0674
https://doi.org/10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2025.0815
https://doi.org/10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2025.0504
https://doi.org/10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2025.0759
https://doi.org/10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2025.0655
https://doi.org/10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2025.0704
https://doi.org/10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2025.0691
https://doi.org/10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2025.0775
https://doi.org/10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2025.0747
https://doi.org/10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2025.0771

About Cancer Biology & Medicine

Cancer Biology & Medicine (CBM) is a peer-reviewed open-access journal sponsored by China Anti-cancer Association (CACA) and Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute & Hospital. The journal monthly provides innovative and significant information on biological basis of cancer, cancer microenvironment, translational cancer research, and all aspects of clinical cancer research. The journal also publishes significant perspectives on indigenous cancer types in China. The journal is indexed in SCOPUS, MEDLINE and SCI (IF 8.4, 5-year IF 6.7), with all full texts freely visible to clinicians and researchers all over the world (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/journals/2000/).

Video introducing the breast cancer special issue [VIDEO] 

---

Journal

Cancer Biology & Medicine

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Special Issue on Harnessing Artificial Intelligence for Personalized Breast Cancer Treatment Guest