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What: When bacteria invade the human body, immune cells rush to our defense, initiating a high-stakes tug-of-war in which macrophages – a type of immune cell that engulfs and digests pathogens and cellular debris – attempt to destroy the invaders while the bacteria look to survive and replicate. The outcomes of these cellular death matches vary from cell to cell: some macrophages engulf bacteria while others remain uninfected, and of those infected, some destroy their invaders while others allow bacteria to thrive.

Lipid droplets (LDs) are structures that store fat within cells and change size based on energy availability. However, LDs do not function on their own: they require the help of proteins to carry out their metabolic duties. , researchers from the ӳý, Harvard Medical School, and Yale School of Medicine sought to determine what factors influence the composition of such proteins. Results showed that a process known as “molecular crowding” — in which proteins fall off the surface of LDs as they shrink — could be responsible.

Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM) at the University of Helsinki and the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at ӳý of MIT and Harvard, together with its international partners, are initiating major new sample collections in several regions and countries. The goal is to collect up to 50,000 samples from schizophrenia patients across the globe.

The first collection will be established in Finland, where the researchers plan to collect samples of genetic material and study genes from 10,000 Finnish patients with schizophrenia.