Emily Salmini

[UCD School of Medicine ] The European Research Council has announced the winners of its latest Starting Grant competition. Drs. Seungkuk Ahn and Dr Alan Seltzer, have received a total of almost €4 million in funding to help build their own teams and develop their research.

[Trends in Cancer] Scientists synthesize evidence that tumors become locked in either proinflammatory or pro-resolution phases, defined by neutrophil- or macrophage-dominated ecosystems.

[Cell Biomaterials] The authors summarize recent advances in recapitulating the ECM in organ-on-chip systems and argue that the next generation of organ-on-chip platforms will be defined not by increasing structural complexity alone but by their ability to integrate biologically instructive ECMs with manufacturable biomaterial systems.

[iScience] Researchers developed degradable amorphous silica fiber scaffolds that actively support biomineral nucleation and growth while maintaining long-term stability. The scaffolds degraded linearly over 40 weeks, and biomineralization enhanced compressive modulus by more than 100%.

[Cancer Research] Challenging the prevailing fibroblast-centric paradigm, investigators provide an overview of how non-fibroblast cell types engage in dynamic crosstalk and collectively shape the biochemical and biomechanical landscape of tumors.

[Journal of Histochemistry & Cytochemistry] Scientists evaluated ECM alterations in a rat model of Peyronie’s disease induced by transforming growth factor beta and to assess the potential antifibrotic effects of mycophenolate mofetil.