Analyzing seismic waveforms recorded by the InSight mission seismometer, we discovered and documented 47 marsquakes in the Cerberus Fossae region of Mars. Their repetitive nature at all times of the Martian day tells a story of their likely volcanic origin and of a mobile Martian mantle. Mars harbours a liquid core, and it remains to be understood why the Martian geodynamic field ceased to exist.

Immune cells can move within our body, even between firmly attached cells. How do they overcome these impediments? Studying fruit fly embryos, we have discovered that immune cells take advantage of dividing cells. Because intercellular attachments disassemble during division, it creates a weak spot in the dense tissue, through which immune cells can migrate.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia are devastating neurological diseases. Yet, there is no effective treatment for them. We uncovered a genetic cause of these diseases leading to a cryptic process in neurons caused by a malfunctioning protein. Our finding might help provide a potential new therapy for such neurological diseases.  

We have seen in recent years a massive leap forward in plant genetic engineering which holds great promise for future plant breeding. However, the genes that steer the plant’s powerhouses had resisted our attempts to change them. We tried a technique that had fallen out of favour in the last decade, and we unexpectedly discovered an efficient and valuable tool.

What is going on with SARS-CoV-2 infection and your brain? Even in mild infection there may be neurological injury that affects recovery. In our study, brain tissue recovered from SARS-CoV-2 infected non-human primates revealed microbleeds, neuron injury and death, and evidence of brain hypoxia, all of which may cause long-lasting neurological symptoms after infection.

Schizophrenia is widely thought to involve the disruption of both early and late phases of brain development – the so-called ‘two-hit’ hypothesis – but what is the biology behind these two hits? Studying genetic changes contributing to risk for the disorder, we uncovered surprising links between the biological pathways involved in early and late hits.