[iScience] Researchers reported an unexpected role of PEX19, a chaperone and receptor for peroxisomal membrane proteins, in regulating cell cycle and cell fates of mESCs through a peroxisome-independent mechanism.

[Stem Cell Reports] Scientists showed that the chromatin state of the starting population constrains the neuronal identities that ASCL1 and DLX2 can specify: patterned progenitors give rise to GABAergic neurons with cortical and ganglionic eminence-associated molecular signatures, whereas naive PSCs yield neurons with mixed regional identities, including hypothalamic and thalamic signatures.

[Fate Therapeutics, Inc.] Fate Therapeutics, Inc. announced that the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) has awarded the Company a $15.0 million grant, through its CLIN2 program, to support the clinical development of RECLAIM-LN, the Company's Phase II, potentially registrational trial of FT819 off-the-shelf CAR T cell in patients with refractory moderate-to-severe Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) with Lupus Nephritis (LN).

[Pluristyx, Inc. ] Alpha Teknova, Inc. and Pluristyx, Inc. announced that Pluristyx is completing a Type II Drug Master File for the PluriFreeze^™ cryopreservation system for submission to the US FDA.

[Nature Communications] Investigators showed that the cis-expression of the Nodamura virus (NoV) B2 protein markedly enhances saRNA-driven transgene expression by alleviating key cell-intrinsic antiviral effectors.

[Cell Reports] Researchers showed that SARS-CoV-2 induces ferroptosis-linked iron dysregulation in the placenta as a potential attempt to limit trophoblast infection. In trophoblast cells and stem cell-derived trophoblast organoids with apical-out polarity, SARS-CoV-2 Delta infection suppresses the iron efflux transporter ferroportin and ferroptosis inhibitors.

[Experimental & Molecular Medicine] The authors review current knowledge on the role of mitophagy in bacterial and viral infections and sepsis, focusing on the mechanisms by which pathogens evade mitophagy or influence pathogenesis through mitophagy during different types of infection.

[Cell Reports] Using cryo-electron tomography, scientists showed that Mycobacterium tuberculosis, a major human pathogen, is able to form intracytoplasmic membranes outside and inside host cells in a strain-dependent manner. They characterized these mycobacterial intracytoplasmic membranes as nitrate-induced structures.

[Advanced Science] Using a CRISPR screen and proteomics, scientists identified Poly (ADP)-ribose polymerase 1 (PARP1) as a critical proviral host factor that directly binds NS1.

[Virus Research] Researchers investigated how type I interferon signaling influences the cellular inflammatory response and immunopathology in the central nervous system during ZIKV infection.

[Advanced Science] Scientists identified viral ORF9b as a conserved accessory protein across the Sarbecovirus subgenus that consistently suppresses innate immune responses by recruiting the protein phosphatase, Mg2+/Mn2+-dependent 1A (PPM1A).

[Msphere] To investigate how allergic airway inflammation affects SARS-CoV-2-induced pneumonia, researchers used an ovalbumin-induced airway allergy mouse model and infected mice with QHmusX, a mouse-passaged SARS-CoV-2 strain that causes severe acute pneumonia.