Humans love to think of our species as unique. But on a genetic level, such uniqueness is surprisingly hard to find. And while that may be a blow to the ego, it also means that an evolutionary lens is one way to search for insights into human diseases. Animals are “adapted to use the same genes that you and I have, but in very different ways,” Ashley Zehnder told BioWorld. Zehnder is co-founder and CEO of Fauna Bio Inc., which uses comparative genomics to identify gene networks that underlie disease resistance in different animal species.

Investigators have identified five cases of so-called iatrogenic Alzheimer’s disease (AD), that is, AD that was acquired as a result of undergoing medical procedures. A team led by University College London scientists reported their findings online in Nature Medicine on Jan. 29, 2024.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have identified a proteomic signature that could recognize long COVID six months after acute infection. Biologically, the signature indicated that the complement system remained active in patients with long COVID six months after infection. Translationally, it could lead to a diagnostic test for long COVID, and suggests that targeting the complement system could be a therapeutic approach to prevent or treat the disorder.