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Next Gen Leadership Awards Presented at the AGBT Agricultural Meeting

Last month, the AGBT Agricultural Meeting was held in Phoenix, Arizona. The conference is focused on agricultural genomics—plant and animal genetics. During the meeting, the recipients of the 2026 Next Gen Leadership Awards were announced.

These awards recognize outstanding early-career scientists and graduate students whose work and potential are shaping the future of agricultural genomics, including advances in plant and animal genomics. Award recipients receive financial support to attend and present their research at the AGBT Agricultural Meeting, with opportunities to engage with leaders in the field and build connections across the genomics community.

“These awardees reflect the strength and diversity of emerging talent in agricultural genomics,” said Sarah Hearne, PhD, chief science and innovation officer at CIMMYT and co-chair of the AGBT Agriculture Scientific Organizing Committee. “AGBT Agriculture plays an important role in bringing these scientists into conversation with leaders across the field, helping accelerate the translation of genomics into practice.”

The awardees represent rising leaders in agricultural genomics, advancing research across genomic variability, genetic analysis, molecular diagnostics, pathogen surveillance, and quantitative trait genomics to improve crop performance, strengthen food safety, and advance sustainable agriculture.

“This award represents a transformative opportunity to grow as a scientist and contribute more effectively to innovation in animal breeding,” said Larissa Bordin Temp, a 2026 Next Gen Leadership Award recipient.

The 2026 AGBT Agricultural Meeting Next Gen Leadership awardees were:

  • Boris ME Alladassi, PhD: postdoctoral research associate at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
    • Research focus: Connecting the evolutionary and statistical views of epistasis in quantitative trait genomics
  • Mythri Bikkasani: graduate student at Punjab Agricultural University, India
    • Research focus: Connecting the dots: from high-throughput feed phenotyping to genomic dissection of heterosis in maize
  • Larissa Bordin Temp: graduate student at São Paulo State University, Faculty of Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences
    • Research focus: Genomic evaluation of rump fat–adjusted residual feed intake in zebu cattle: implications for selection strategies
  • Lauren Johnson: graduate student at Gluck Equine Research Center, University of Kentucky
    • Research focus: Functional introgression within the horse mhc genes
  • Mehak Kapoor: graduate assistant at Iowa State University
    • Research focus: Cell-type resolved gene expression signatures to identify and predict persistent PRRSV infection
  • Pedro Nuñez Romano, PhD: postdoctoral researcher at Universitat Politècnica de València
    • Research focus: Integrating technology to refine the estimation of social genetic effects in pigs
  • Viona Osei: graduate student at Tuskegee University
    • Research focus: Exploiting genomic variability in Listeria for the development of molecular diagnostic markers
  • Kyungyong Seong, PhD: postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Davis
    • Research focus: Resurrection of the plant immune receptor Sr50 to overcome pathogen immune evasion
  • Jade van Wijk: graduate student at Earlham Institute
    • Research focus: Using airborne DNA sequencing to monitor sporulation, infection and relative abundance of cereal rust fungi

The post Next Gen Leadership Awards Presented at the AGBT Agricultural Meeting appeared first on GEN – Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News.

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The Download: the tech reshaping IVF and the rise of balcony solar

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.

What’s next for IVF

IVF has brought millions of babies into the world over the last four decades. But the process can still be slow, painful, and expensive—and far from guaranteed to work. Now, a wave of new technologies aims to change that. 

Researchers are using AI to identify promising sperm and embryos, developing robotic systems that could automate parts of the IVF process, and even exploring controversial genetic editing techniques designed to prevent inherited disease.

The technologies could make IVF more effective and accessible. But they’re also raising difficult ethical questions about how far reproductive medicine should go.

Find out what’s next for IVF.

—Jessica Hamzelou

This story is from MIT Technology Review’s What’s Next series, which looks across industries, trends, and technologies to give you a first look at the future. You can read the rest of them here.

The balcony solar boom is coming to the US

Dozens of US states are considering legislation to allow people to install plug-in solar systems, often called balcony solar. These small arrays require little to no setup and could help cut emissions and power bills.

Proponents say the systems could make solar power more accessible, but some experts caution that there are safety concerns. 

Read the full story on balcony solar’s potentially massive impact in the US.

—Casey Crownhart

This article is from The Spark, our weekly climate newsletter. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday.

Resistance: 10 Things That Matter in AI Right Now

Resistance against AI’s proliferation is growing. People from all walks of life are speaking out against rising electricity bills from data centers, disappearing jobs, chatbots’ impact on teen mental health, the military’s use of AI, and copyright infringement—among other concerns. 

People want to have a say in how the technology transforms their future. And they’re starting to create small cracks in AI labs’ vision for the future. Find out how.

—Michelle Kim

Resistance is on our list of the 10 Things That Matter in AI Right Now, MIT Technology Review’s guide to what’s really worth your attention in the buzzy world of AI. 

The must-reads

I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.

1 After years of insults, Anthropic and SpaceX have teamed up
Anthropic will tap SpaceX’s GPUs to meet surging demand. (Axios)
+ While SpaceX gets a marquee customer for its AI ambitions. (Wired $)
+ Anthropic says the deal will double Claude Code’s rate limits. (Ars Technica)
+It’s also exploring building compute capacity in space. (CNBC)
+ Musk previously called Anthropic “evil” and “misanthropic.” (Gizmodo)

2 Ex-OpenAI leaders say Sam Altman sowed “chaos” and distrust
Former CTO Mira Murati said she couldn’t trust his words. (The Verge)
+ He also bypassed OpenAI’s safety board before a model release. (Gizmodo)
+ And pitted leaders against one another. (Forbes)
+ But Elon Musk still tried to recruit Altman to lead a Tesla AI lab. (FT $)
+ Here’s why Musk and Altman are in court. (MIT Technology Review)

3 China’s humanoid robots are fueling its next export boom
Morgan Stanley says Beijing has taken an early lead in the sector. (Bloomberg $)
+ Gig workers are training humanoids at home. (MIT Technology Review)

4 SpaceX’s IPO plans will give Elon Musk “virtually unchecked” authority
And erode typical shareholder protections. (Reuters $)
+ Activists and pension funds are pushing back against the IPO. (Wired $)
+ While SpaceX is shifting focus from Falcon 9 to Starship. (Ars Technica)

5 Google DeepMind will use the MMORPG Eve Online for AI model testing
It’s also bought a stake in the game’s maker. (Ars Technica)
+ DeepMind also recently built a new video-game-playing agent. (MIT Technology Review)

6 The US risks isolating its automakers by banning a Chinese EV standard
It’s prohibiting software that’s dominating global EV markets. (Rest of World)

7 Elon Musk’s proposed Texas chip factory could cost $119 billion
It would manufacture chips for Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI. (CNBC)
+ Future AI chips could be built on glass. (MIT Technology Review)

8 Why the “attention-span crisis” is misunderstood
Technology may be exhausting attention rather than shortening it. (Atlantic $)

9 Scientists are getting closer to explaining what causes lightning
New tools are revealing unexpected physics inside thunderstorms. (Quanta)

10 Kids have found an age verification loophole: fake mustaches
Resourceful children are foiling blocks on adult websites. (TechCrunch)

Quote of the day

“My concern was about Sam saying one thing to one person and completely the opposite to another person.”

—Mira Murati, the former CTO of OpenAI, testifies ‌in court that CEO Sam Altman was deceptive, Reuters reports.

One More Thing

ALAMY


A brief, weird history of brainwashing

During the Cold War, the US prepared for a psychic war with the Soviet Union and China by spending millions of dollars on research into manipulating the human brain. 

The science never exactly panned out, but residual beliefs fostered by this bizarre conflict continue to play a role in ideological and scientific debates to this day. And now, new technologies are altering how we think about mind control. 

This is how the race for mind control changed America forever.

—Annalee Newitz

We can still have nice things

A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line.)

+ Listen to the 10 bird songs of spring in this lovely compilation of American species.
+ Good Samaritans saved a 29-foot whale that had wandered too far into a river.
+ Explore the intersection of human emotion and machine learning in this look at AI’s influence on art.
+ Break down the walls between streaming services and manage all your digital music in one place with this app.

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Amyloid-β clearance: an astrocytic perspective

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) represents a major global public health challenge in the 21st century, recognized as the neurodegenerative disorder with the highest mortality rate and socioeconomic burden. The core pathological feature of AD is an imbalance in Aβ production and clearance, leading to conformational changes and pathological aggregation of Aβ peptides. This imbalance triggers neurodegenerative cascades 20–30 years before clinical symptoms appear. Therapeutic approaches targeting Aβ production, including β-secretase and γ-secretase inhibitors, have thus far shown limited clinical benefit in late-stage trials and have been further constrained by safety and tolerability concerns. As a result, early interventions aimed at enhancing Aβ clearance have attracted increasing attention. While microglia-mediated phagocytosis of Aβ has been extensively studied, the multifaceted roles of astrocytes in this process remain underexplored. This review synthesizes recent findings to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of astrocyte-mediated Aβ clearance, focusing on endocytic uptake and intracellular degradation, maintenance of the blood–brain barrier, and aquaporin-4 (AQP4)-dependent glymphatic drainage. Additionally, this review dissects key regulatory nodes, including the dynamic modulation of Aβ clearance capacity through astrocyte phenotypic transitions and functional decline associated with pathology. These insights offer a theoretical foundation and translational perspective for the development of astrocyte-targeted interventions in early-stage AD.
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Case Report: Relief of long-standing severe motion sickness following stellate ganglion block

BackgroundMotion sickness is a common and often debilitating condition arising from sensory conflict within the vestibular–visual–proprioceptive system, with downstream activation of autonomic and emetic pathways. Despite its prevalence in travel, maritime operations, aviation, spaceflight, and virtual environments, effective prophylaxis remains limited by adverse side effects. Experimental and clinical evidence implicates autonomic imbalance and sympathetic nervous system (SNS) hyperactivity in motion sickness susceptibility and symptom severity.Case presentationWe report the incidental resolution of long-standing, severe motion sickness in a 68-year-old man undergoing treatment with stellate ganglion block (SGB) for complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) of the left upper extremity. The patient had experienced incapacitating motion sickness triggered by air and sea travel for approximately 28 years, substantially limiting occupational and recreational activities. He underwent a series of left-sided SGBs over several months as part of CRPS management. Following several rounds of treatment, he unexpectedly reported complete and sustained remission of motion sickness. Over 12 months of follow-up, he remained symptom-free during repeated boating activities without pharmacologic prophylaxis.DiscussionMotion sickness is associated with increased sympathetic activity, reduced parasympathetic tone during symptom provocation, and hemodynamic changes including reduced cerebral blood flow. The stellate ganglion is a major sympathetic relay to the head, neck, and thorax, and SGB is known to transiently reduce sympathetic outflow and alter cerebral perfusion. Although local anesthetic effects are short-lived, some clinical benefits of SGB appear durable, suggesting longer-term modulation of autonomic reflexes. Genetic and physiological studies further support a role for exaggerated vestibulosympathetic reflex activity in motion sickness susceptibility. Additionally, both the stellate ganglia and the central autonomic network exhibit functional lateralization, and neuroimaging data suggest a left-hemisphere contribution to motion sickness susceptibility, raising the possibility of side-specific effects.ConclusionThis case represents, to our knowledge, the first report of durable remission of chronic motion sickness following SGB. While causality cannot be established from a single observation, the finding supports further systematic investigation of SGB as a non-pharmacologic and potentially durable prophylactic treatment for motion sickness.
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PMAT enhances sexual dimorphism of fear behaviors and facilitates female mice’s generalized contextual fear extinction

Enhanced signaling of dopamine and/or serotonin during highly arousing situations can be reduced in part by monoamine transporters, such as plasma membrane monoamine transporter (PMAT, Slc29a4). An absence of selective pharmacological inhibitors means genetically modified mice constitutively deficient in PMAT remain the best tool for studying PMAT’s organism-level functional effects. Fear conditioning is a high arousal process. Generalization of fear is evolutionarily advantageous, whereby information learned from one experience is applied to other new but similar encounters. Pathological fear generalization, in contrast, is a core feature of most anxiety disorders. Given our previous findings indicating PMAT function reduces male mice’s context fear and enhances extinction of female mice’s cued fear, we hypothesized PMAT would similarly reduce generalization (i.e., enhance discrimination) of context and cued fear in male and female mice, respectively. Our context and cued fear conditioning experiments in adult PMAT wildtype (+/+) and heterozygous (+/−) male and female mice partially supported our hypotheses. We discovered PMAT facilitates extinction of contextually generalized fear, plus subsequent extinction of context-specific fear, selectively in females. Moreover, when specific fear cues or contexts were temporally presented before cues or contexts that were similar enough to make generalization possible, PMAT enhanced biological sex differences. Growing evidence reports common PMAT polymorphisms elicit measurable effects when PMAT function is reduced. Thus, we suspect future experiments may reveal positive associations between PMAT polymorphisms and risk for anxiety disorder symptoms, particularly in people assigned female at birth. Inclusion of these genetic variations in pharmacogenomic analyses may prove therapeutically beneficial.
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Serum hypocretin, neurofilament heavy chain, and interleukin-1β as combined predictors of sleep disorders following acute ischemic stroke

BackgroundSleep disorders represent a common and impactful complication following acute ischemic stroke (AIS). This study aimed to identify clinical risk factors and evaluate the predictive value of serum hypocretin (Hcrt), neurofilament heavy chain (NfH), and interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β) for post-stroke sleep disorders.MethodsWe conducted a retrospective observational study of 256 patients with AIS. Patients were classified into sleep disorder (n = 161) and non-sleep disorder (n = 95) groups based on their Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index scores 7 days after stroke onset. Fasting serum levels of Hcrt, NfH, and IL-1β were measured upon admission. We utilized multivariate logistic regression and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves to evaluate predictive performance. The combined model was internally validated using 1,000 bootstrap resamples to assess optimism-corrected discriminative performance.ResultsSleep disorders were present in 62.9% of patients. Nine independent risk factors were identified: age ≥ 65 years (OR = 2.059), snoring history (OR = 1.980), prior stroke (OR = 2.036), lower ADL scores (OR = 1.839), higher HAMD (OR = 1.726) and NIHSS scores (OR = 1.677), decreased serum Hcrt (OR = 1.863), elevated NfH (OR = 2.020), and elevated IL-1β (OR = 1.793; all p < 0.05). Individual biomarker AUCs ranged from 0.742 to 0.781, whereas the combined three-biomarker model achieved a significantly superior AUC of 0.874 (sensitivity 88.82%, specificity 71.58%). Bootstrap internal validation yielded a mean optimism-corrected AUC of 0.861 (95% CI: 0.812–0.903), indicating robust model performance with minimal overfitting.ConclusionClinical variables alongside altered levels of Hcrt, NfH, and IL-1β serve as independent predictors of post-stroke sleep disorders. The combined three-biomarker panel, reflecting neuroendocrine dysregulation, axonal injury, and systemic inflammation, demonstrates substantially superior predictive accuracy over individual biomarkers and offers a clinically practical tool for early identification of high-risk patients.
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Introducing a translationally relevant mouse model of radiosurgery-induced unilateral hearing loss

BackgroundStereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) is widely used to treat vestibular schwannomas but may cause irreversible hearing loss due to cochlear toxicity. The underlying mechanisms are not fully understood, and no effective otoprotective therapies exist. We aimed to establish a mouse model that replicates the clinical pattern of radiation-induced hearing loss.MethodsC57BL/6J mice (n = 31) received 8 Gy (n = 3), 16 Gy (n = 5), 24 Gy (n = 8), or 32 Gy (n = 15) using the Leksell Gamma Knife ICON system. Targeting was based on the built-in cone-beam CT, co-registered with MRI and CT-based mouse atlases, to guide unilateral cochlea targeting. A single isocenter was placed lateral to the right cochlea, with the 80% isodose line traversing its medial edge. Auditory brainstem response (ABR) was measured at baseline and at 1 and 4 weeks post-SRS. A 32 Gy subgroup (n = 7) was evaluated at 16 weeks. Histological analysis of cochleae was performed at 4 weeks in all groups and at 16 weeks in the long-term 32 Gy group.ResultsSRS was well tolerated, and the contralateral cochlea received a very low radiation dose. No ABR shifts were observed at 8 or 16 Gy, with only minimal histological changes. At 32 Gy, ABR threshold shifts at 22.6 and 32 kHz were evident by week 1 and worsened by week 4. Similar but milder effects occurred at 24 Gy. In the 32 Gy long-term subgroup, hearing loss progressed across all frequencies, most severely at high frequencies, alongside a sustained wave I amplitude decline. At 32 Gy, outer hair cells were reduced by 14 and 44% at 32 and 45.2 kHz, respectively, at 4 weeks, and by 38 and 80% at 16 weeks. Ribbon synapses were mildly reduced at 4 weeks and more markedly at 16 weeks in corresponding high-frequency regions. Spiral ganglion neuron density was mildly reduced at the basal and middle turns. All reported changes were statistically significant when compared to the contralateral ear.ConclusionThis new model reproduces key features of SRS-induced cochlear toxicity, including unilateral, dose-dependent, and progressive hearing loss. It thus provides a valuable platform for investigating mechanisms and testing otoprotective strategies.
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Beyond distress relief: the Anhedonic Subtype of nonsuicidal self-injury and the imperative for Positive Affect Treatment

This perspective article argues that the theoretical landscape of nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) has long been stabilized by the “hydraulic” model of Automatic Negative Reinforcement, which conceptualizes self-harm primarily as a mechanism to down-regulate aversive hyper-arousal. While this framework successfully elucidates the etiology of self-injury driven by high-intensity negative affect, it fails to account for a substantial, treatment-resistant phenotype: adolescents driven by profound anhedonia and ventral striatal hypofunction. This perspective article argues for the formal recognition of an “Anhedonic Subtype” of NSSI. Synthesizing recent epidemiological data identifying “emptiness” as a central symptom network bridge, alongside neurobiological evidence of reward blunting, we posit that for this subtype, NSSI functions not as a sedative, but as a mechanism of “forced activation.” We propose a preliminary differential diagnostic framework distinguishing defensive dissociation from anhedonic deficit and outline the theoretical rationale for exploring a shift in clinical intervention from distress tolerance toward positive affect up-regulation. The clinical utility of this framework remains to be evaluated in future empirical research.
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Resonance across cultures and faiths: examining the violin music’s role in emotional, psychological, and spiritual well-being for sustainable societies

Music is a decisive factor of the everyday life and the core focus of human being of any culture. People of all ages, races and ethnicities prefer to listen to it and play it. But music is not only entertainment because scientific research has shown that it can also create an impact on the physiological processes that can be used to enhance physical and mental illnesses. The current study analyzes the ways in which the violin may be employed in enhancing emotional, psychological and spiritual well-being of different cultures and religions. It relies on secondary data to examine the emotional appeal of the instrument, the psychological resilience benefits, and the spiritual meaning of the instrument particularly in the intercultural and interfaith context. The sound of the violin that is very flexible and familiar in various cultural and religious practices is also a channel of emotional expression, psychological healing, and spiritual intercourse. Therapeutic interventions and educational environments have been linked to it, as a means of improving emotional control, decreasing stress and increasing resilience. Also, the violin can be used as a significant instrument of spiritual reflection in other religious practices, in the Christian church service as well as in Hindu devotional music. Findings indicate that the violin facilitates interfaith communication and social integration by way of sharing of emotions and spirituality. It is a cultural preservation and common good, that promotes inclusivity and comprehension of the multicultural societies and results in sustainable communities. The paper shows that the field of special role of the violin in promoting resilience, empathy and sustainable development of society needs more empirical studies to advance the knowledge on the topic.