Science

  1. A bright young cell moves into a grey neighbourhood and turns grey, while a grey cell moves into a bright neighbourhood and lights up.

    Heterochronic myeloid cell replacement reveals the local brain environment as key driver of microglia aging

    Young replacement microglia, the brain's immune cells, aged fast in old brains. Old ones looked young in young brains.

  2. A brain map of 15 small squares where the white matter tracts glow brightest as the years tick forward.

    Atlas of the aging mouse brain reveals white matter as vulnerable foci

    We profiled 15 mouse brain regions across 7 ages. Glial aging runs faster in white matter than cortex.

  3. One tape fed through two different machines, and both print the same map of the hippocampus.

    CoolMPS for robust sequencing of single-nuclear RNAs captured by droplet-based method

    CoolMPS sequencing reproduced standard Illumina results on single-nucleus RNA from young and old mouse hippocampus.

  4. Seventeen organ icons on one timeline, each lighting the same pattern at a different moment, with white fat first.

    Ageing hallmarks exhibit organ-specific temporal signatures

    Organs hit the same aging hallmarks on different schedules. Immune activation shows first in white fat.

  5. A small mouse at a fork in the road, walking on with the long shadow of its old plate behind it.

    A nutritional memory effect counteracts the benefits of dietary restriction in old mice

    In 800 mice, stopping dietary restriction at 24 months raised mortality fast. Starting it late helped only weakly.

  6. Three different keys, a plate, a pill and a tiny mouse, all opening one door marked with flags along a gene.

    Hepatic gene body hypermethylation is a shared epigenetic signature of murine longevity

    Dietary restriction, rapamycin and dwarf genetics each add methylation inside gene bodies in mouse liver.

  7. Two strands of DNA side by side: one losing its small flags with time, the other keeping them and adding new ones on lipid genes.

    Dietary restriction protects from age-associated DNA methylation and induces epigenetic reprogramming of lipid metabolism

    Dietary restriction delayed age-related epigenetic changes in mouse liver and added methylation at lipid genes.

  8. A brain map with a single small letter tag multiplying inside one microglia as time passes.

    A spatio-temporal brain miRNA expression atlas identifies sex-independent age-related microglial driven miR-155-5p increase

    A microRNA atlas of 15 mouse brain regions. miR-155-5p rises with age in both sexes, driven by microglia.

  9. New cells walk into a damaged neighbourhood and the frayed wires around them start to mend.

    Myeloid cell replacement is neuroprotective in chronic experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis

    Replacing immune cells by transplant improved neurological deficits in a mouse model of multiple sclerosis.

  10. Sixteen small organ jars on a shelf, each with the same tiny tag slowly climbing, then dropping in the liver jar.

    Characterizing expression changes in noncoding RNAs during aging and heterochronic parabiosis across mouse tissues

    A noncoding RNA map of 16 organs. miR-29c-3p tracks aging and returns to young levels in liver with young blood.

  11. A small train on a gene track moving faster and shakier as the calendar flips.

    Ageing-associated changes in transcriptional elongation influence longevity

    RNA polymerase speeds up with age in five species. Dietary restriction reverses most of this, and slowing polymerase extends lifespan.

  12. Small discs drift from a blood vessel into the brain, and a lamp brightens wherever they land.

    Platelet factors are induced by longevity factor klotho and enhance cognition in young and aging mice

    Klotho raises platelet factors in blood. One of them, PF4, improves cognition in young and old mice.

  13. A thin stream of clear water runs into an old well, and new sprouts wrap the pipes around it.

    Young CSF restores oligodendrogenesis and memory in aged mice via Fgf17

    Young cerebrospinal fluid improved memory in old mice. Fgf17 alone did too.

  14. A running mouse hands a small vial to a resting one, and a red spark in its head dims.

    Exercise plasma boosts memory and dampens brain inflammation via clusterin

    Plasma from running mice reduced brain inflammation in sedentary mice, through proteins including clusterin.

  15. A gate in a wall passes a signal inward while no invader is in sight, and the watchmen inside change colour.

    Dysregulation of brain and choroid plexus cell types in severe COVID‑19

    Brains from COVID-19 patients showed no molecular trace of virus but broad changes in barrier cells and microglia.

  16. A small cell slowly fills with round yellow beads until it can no longer pick anything up.

    Lipid-droplet-accumulating microglia represent a dysfunctional and proinflammatory state in the aging brain

    Microglia fill with lipid droplets as brains age. These cells clear debris poorly and drive inflammation.

  17. A big library wall of small cell portraits, with each row growing older from left to right.

    A single-cell transcriptomic atlas characterizes ageing tissues in the mouse

    A single-cell atlas of aging across 23 mouse tissues and organs.

  18. A nose with its lights switched off above a small fat cell that begins to burn like a stove.

    The Sense of Smell Impacts Metabolic Health and Obesity

    Mice that lost smell neurons resisted diet-induced obesity. Losing smell after obesity reduced fat mass.

  19. Dozens of small hands each draw arrows between the same dots, and a judge checks which arrows hold.

    Inferring causal molecular networks: empirical assessment through a community-based effort

    A community challenge scored over 2,000 networks for causal links in cancer cell signaling.