A Major Makeover

NIH needs a makeover.

This elegantly carved jade face from Liangzhu in southeastern China provides an intriguing glimpse into the beliefs of the people who lived there from 3400 B.C.E. to 2250 B.C.E. As described in a special News Focus section beginning on page 930, discoveries at Liangzhu and other regions far from the traditional heartland of Chinese civilization are revealing surprisingly complex ancient culture...

Getting Healthier Through Microbiome Makeover

In this issue of EBioMedicine, Liping Zhao and colleagues show that children with obesity have similar gut microbiota dysbiosis regardless of their geneticmakeup,whether it is simple obesity (no underlying pathology) or genetic obesity (Prader–Willi syndrome). Furthermore, their microbiome profile can be changed by a 1-month dietary intervention. Interestingly, the authors also show that transf...

Chemical makeover inhibits IL-8

Chemical makeover inhibits IL-8 On page 2085, Proost et al. find that altering a single arginine turns an inflammatory chemokine docile. The chemokine IL-8, which activates and recruits neutrophils, is secreted as a mixture of isoforms that vary in length due to proteolysis. A cut after the first five amino end residues produces active protein, whereas cuts elsewhere inhibit activity. Proteolys...

Extreme makeover for Hartford's print shop.

Extreme makeover: converting one cell into another.

Cells of adult mammals can be converted (reprogrammed) to new cells. In one approach, adult cells are converted to pluripotent stem cells, followed by differentiation to regenerate new cell types. Alternatively, adult cells may be directly converted into other mature cells or progenitors. We discuss and compare these two approaches with particular emphasis on the latter and its relevance for re...