Mucous membrane pemphigoid is an autoimmune disease that causes inflammation and scarring in mucosal tissues. Affected individuals frequently exhibit scarring in the eye, which can lead to blindness in as many as 20% of patients. In this issue of JCI Insight, two related studies report on the underlying cause of fibrosis in the eye and implicate an important role for vitamin A metabolism. A group of researchers led by John Dart at UCLA show that the enzyme aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH), which produces the vitamin A metabolite retinoic acid, is elevated in mucous membrane tissue in the eye from mucous membrane pemphigoid patients.

A new study reveals that those who affiliate with the Democratic Party have different views than those who vote Republican on the following issues: the likelihood of floods occurring, adopting protection measures, and expectations of disaster relief from the government. The study was jointly conducted by VU University in Amsterdam, Utrecht University School of Economics in The Netherlands, and the Center for Risk Management and Decision Processes at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, USA.

Kyoto, Japan -- When human and chimp infants are dozing, they sometimes show facial movements that resemble smiles. These facial expressions -- called spontaneous smiles -- are considered the evolutionary origin of real smiles and laughter.

Researchers at Kyoto University's Primate Research Institute show that this not only happens to higher-order primates like humans and chimpanzees, but also in newborn Japanese macaques, which are more distant relatives in the evolutionary tree.

A joint University of Adelaide-Shanghai Jiao Tong University study has provided the first broad picture of the evolution and possible functions in the plant of pollen allergens.

Published in the journal Plant Physiology, the researchers believe their work may help with medical research into the reduction or prevention of allergic diseases such as asthma and allergic rhinitis (hay fever).

"During the past four decades, allergic diseases have become a global health problem," says project leader Professor Dabing Zhang, who leads the University of Adelaide and Shanghai Jiao Tong University Joint Laboratory for Plant Science and Breeding.

The number of honey bee colonies fell by nearly 12% last winter - according to a preliminary look at a survey of beekeepers, that is. The UK and Spain were worst affected this year. The prior year, other areas of Europe were hardest hit.  While environmental groups make money scaring people about that, what it really means is something else.

The preliminary claims are being made by the honey bee research association COLOSS, based in the Institute of Bee Health at the University of Bern.

Cancer treatments based on laser irridation of tiny nanoparticles that are injected directly into the cancer tumor are working and can destroy the cancer from within. Researchers from the Niels Bohr Institute and the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Copenhagen have developed a method that kills cancer cells using nanoparticles and lasers. The treatment has been tested on mice and it has been demonstrated that the cancer tumors are considerably damaged. The results are published in the scientific journal, Scientific Reports.

Oxford University researchers have discovered what causes a switch to flip in our brains and wake us up. The discovery, published in the journal Nature, brings us closer to understanding the mystery of sleep.

Sleep is governed by two systems--the circadian clock and the sleep homeostat. While the circadian clock is quite well understood, very little is known about the sleep homeostat.

Professor Gero Miesenböck, in whose laboratory the new research was conducted, explained: 'The circadian clock allows us to anticipate predictable changes in our environment that are caused by the Earth's rotation. As such, it makes sure we do our sleeping when it hurts us least, but it doesn't speak to the mystery of why we need to sleep in the first place.

For a cell in an embryo, the secret to becoming part of the baby's body instead of the placenta is to contract more and carry on dancing, scientists at EMBL have found. The study, published today in Nature, could one day have implications for assisted reproduction.

After a sperm cell fertilises an egg cell, that fertilised egg divides repeatedly, forming a ball of cells. Shortly before the embryo implants in the womb, some of those cells move inwards. These are the cells that will develop into all the baby's body parts. The cells left on the surface will become the placenta, connecting the embryo to the mother's uterus.

University of California, Berkeley engineers have built the first dust-sized, wireless sensors that can be implanted in the body, bringing closer the day when a Fitbit-like device could monitor internal nerves, muscles or organs in real time.

Because these batteryless sensors could also be used to stimulate nerves and muscles, the technology also opens the door to "electroceuticals" to treat disorders such as epilepsy or to stimulate the immune system or tamp down inflammation.