Laurel Oldach

Key Insights Vaccinating against HIV has been a decades-long effort, stymied by the virus’s high mutation rate and mask of human glycans. In recent years, germline targeting—a vaccinate-and-boost approach that coaches the immune system toward producing antibodies that bind in a highly specific way—has picked up steam. Researchers from several teams have cleared a new milestone in primates, raising antibodies that can neutralize multiple strains of HIV.

When the long cabling of nerve cells die off in neurodegenerative diseases, they don’t just wither away passively. Instead, there’s an enzymatic signaling cascade that coordinates axon die-off. One key executioner is a protein called SARM1, which responds to sensing a dip in NAD level by chewing up the rest of the NAD in the cell, tanking the level of this essential coenzyme.

Key Insights Cryo-electron microscopy has been a transformative technique for structural biologists, but it’s plagued with low-contrast images. Fifteen years ago, physicists worked out a method to increase image contrast by hitting the electron imaging beam with an ultrabright laser. Back then, a laser so bright didn’t exist. Now it does, and structural biologists say it could enable major advances.