Research Advances

A Research Advance is a short article that allows either the authors of an eLife paper or other researchers to publish new results that build on the original research paper in an important way.

Latest articles

    1. Cell Biology

    Genome-wide screen reveals Rab12 GTPase as a critical activator of Parkinson’s disease-linked LRRK2 kinase

    Herschel S Dhekne, Francesca Tonelli ... Suzanne R Pfeffer
    Activating mutations in the leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 cause Parkinson’s disease, and an unbiased genome-wide screen revealed an unexpected, specific role for Rab12 in activating this kinase directly for Rab GTPase phosphorylation.
    1. Cell Biology
    2. Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

    Baited reconstruction with 2D template matching for high-resolution structure determination in vitro and in vivo without template bias

    Bronwyn A Lucas, Benjamin A Himes, Nikolaus Grigorieff
    2D template matching enables a streamlined single-particle cryogenic electron microscopy workflow that can be used to discover new high-resolution structural features in molecules and complexes, such as bound ligands and drugs.
    1. Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
    2. Cell Biology

    Scaling of an antibody validation procedure enables quantification of antibody performance in major research applications

    Riham Ayoubi, Joel Ryan ... Carl Laflamme
    Open science and consensus antibody validation protocols can identify high-quality, renewable antibodies for the ~50% of the human proteome currently covered, enabling robust and reproducible biomedical research.
    1. Developmental Biology

    The myocardium utilizes a platelet-derived growth factor receptor alpha (Pdgfra)–phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) signaling cascade to steer toward the midline during zebrafish heart tube formation

    Rabina Shrestha, Tess McCann ... Joshua Bloomekatz
    Research on heart tube assembly using zebrafish reveals a pivotal role for intrinsic Pdgfra–PI3K signaling in steering the movement of the myocardium and polarizing myocardial cell protrusions.
    1. Neuroscience

    Hierarchical temporal prediction captures motion processing along the visual pathway

    Yosef Singer, Luke Taylor ... Nicol S Harper
    Neural network modeling shows that hierarchical application of the simple computational principle of predicting future sensory input from its past can capture features of visual motion processing from the retina to the visual cortex.
    1. Neuroscience

    Competing neural representations of choice shape evidence accumulation in humans

    Krista Bond, Javier Rasero ... Timothy Verstynen
    Interactions between cortical and subcortical circuits in the mammalian brain flexibly control the flow of information streams that drive decisions by shifting the balance of power both within and between action representations.
    1. Neuroscience
    2. Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

    Molecular tuning of sea anemone stinging

    Lily S He, Yujia Qi ... Nicholas W Bellono
    Sea anemones use adapted ion channels to control stinging behavior.
    1. Ecology
    2. Genetics and Genomics

    Adulis and the transshipment of baboons during classical antiquity

    Franziska Grathwol, Christian Roos ... Gisela H Kopp
    The first sequenced mitogenome of a mummified non-human primate connects an Egyptian baboon dated to ca. 800–540 BCE to modern baboon populations in Eritrea, Ethiopia, and eastern Sudan, providing evidence for Egyptian–Adulite trade centuries earlier than current archaeological evidence.
    1. Cell Biology
    2. Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

    The Calpain-7 protease functions together with the ESCRT-III protein IST1 within the midbody to regulate the timing and completion of abscission

    Elliott L Paine, Jack J Skalicky ... Wesley I Sundquist
    Biochemical, structural, imaging, and functional studies reveal how the ESCRT-III protein IST1 recruits the CAPN7 cysteine protease to midbodies, where its proteolytic activity is required for efficient abscission and NoCut checkpoint arrest.
    1. Biochemistry and Chemical Biology

    GDF15 is required for cold-induced thermogenesis and contributes to improved systemic metabolic health following loss of OPA1 in brown adipocytes

    Jayashree Jena, Luis Miguel García-Peña ... Renata O Pereira
    Deletion of optic atrophy 1 in brown adipose tissue induces secretion of growth differentiation factor 15 as a batokine to attenuate diet-induced obesity and improve glucose clearance, hepatic steatosis, and thermoregulation in mice by increasing energy expenditure.