A model of a double-bridged peptide (the peptide in light blue, the two bridges in yellow). The background of the figures shows many examples of skeletons (also named ‘scaffolds’ or ‘backbones’) of double-bridged peptides. Credit: C. Heinis/EPFL

Scientists have developed a new type of ‘double-bridged peptide’ that can be tailored to bind tightly to disease targets of interest. The peptides’ highly efficient binding, combined with their small size and high stability make them ideal for drug therapies...

A new theory may have far reaching implications for the multiverse paradigm. Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/PSU/L. Townsley et al; Optical: UKIRT; Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Professor Stephen Hawking’s final theory on the origin of the universe, which he worked on in collaboration with Professor Thomas Hertog from KU Leuven, has been published in the Journal of High Energy Physics. The theory, which was submitted for publication before Hawking’s death earlier this year, is based on string theory and predicts the universe is finite and far simpler than many current theories about the big bang say...

The Grand Canyon (a) versus a Martian dendritic river system (b) (Arabia quadrangle; 12 degrees N, 43 degrees E). Slight morphologic differences between terrestrial and Martian comparisons may be attributed to the great differences in age. Scale bar is 60 km long. Credit: Google/Landsat/Copernicus (a) and Google/NASA/JPL/University of Arizona (b). Images adapted from Ramirez and Craddock (2018), Nature Geoscience

The climate of early Mars is a subject of debate. A recent study suggests that the early Martian surface may not have been dominated by ice, but instead it may have been modestly warm and prone to rain, with only small patches of ice...

Drs. Esteban Celis and Hussein Sultan in the Georgia Cancer Center at Augusta University laboratory. Credit: Phil Jones, Senior Photographer, Augusta University

New research published in Cancer Immunology Research by Drs. Esteban Celis and Hussein Sultan of the Georgia Cancer Center at Augusta University could serve as the stepping-stone in constructing vaccines with a greater likelihood of finding and attacking tumors in the human body. According to Celis and Sultan, the key in this vaccine strategy is increasing the amount of time a cytokine called interleukin 2 (IL2) stays in the body. IL2 is a molecule in the immune system responsible for regulating the activity of some white blood cells known as killer T cells.

“After administering peptide-based vaccines in mouse models of cancer, we ...