The study, “Endothelial TDP-43 Depletion Disrupts Core Blood-Brain Barrier Pathways in Neurodegeneration,” was published on March 14, 2025. The lead author, Omar Moustafa Fathy, an MD/Ph.D. candidate at the Center for Vascular Biology at UConn School of Medicine, conducted the research in the laboratory of senior author Dr. Patrick A. Murphy, associate professor and newly appointed interim director of the Center for Vascular Biology. The study was carried out in collaboration with Dr. Riqiang Yan, a leading expert in Alzheimer’s disease and neurodegeneration research.

This work provides a novel and significant exploration of how vascular dysfunction contributes to neurodegenerative diseases, exemplifying the powerful collaboration between the Center for Vascular Biology and the Department of Neuroscience. While clinical evidence has long suggested that blood-brain barrier (BBB) dysfunction plays a role in neurodegeneration, the specific contribution of endothelial cells remained unclear. The BBB serves as a critical protective barrier, shielding the brain from circulating factors that could cause inflammation and dysfunction. Though multiple cell types contribute to its function, endothelial cells — the inner lining of blood vessels — are its principal component.

“It is often said in the field that ‘we are only as old as our arteries’. Across diseases we are learning the importance of the endothelium. I had no doubt the same would be true in neurodegeneration, but seeing what these cells were doing was a critical first step,” says Murphy.

Omar, Murphy, and their team tackled a key challenge: endothelial cells are rare and difficult to isolate from tissues, making it even harder to analyze the molecular pathways involved in neurodegeneration.

To overcome this, they developed an innovative approach to enrich these cells from frozen tissues stored in a large NIH-sponsored biobank. They then applied inCITE-seq, a cutting-edge method that enables direct measurement of protein-level signaling responses in single cells — marking its first-ever use in human tissues.

This breakthrough led to a striking discovery: endothelial cells from three different neurodegenerative diseases — Alzheimer’s disease (AD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) — shared fundamental similarities that set them apart from the endothelium in healthy aging. A key finding was the depletion of TDP-43, an RNA-binding protein genetically linked to ALS-FTD and commonly disrupted in AD. Until now, research has focused primarily on neurons, but this study highlights a previously unrecognized dysfunction in endothelial cells.

“It’s easy to think of blood vessels as passive pipelines, but our findings challenge that view,” says Omar. “Across multiple neurodegenerative diseases, we see strikingly similar vascular changes, suggesting that the vasculature isn’t just collateral damage — it’s actively shaping disease progression. Recognizing these commonalities opens the door to new therapeutic possibilities that target the vasculature itself.”

The research team believes this newly identified subset of endothelial cells could provide a roadmap to targeting this endothelial disfunction to stave off disease, and also to develop new biomarkers from the blood of patients with disease.

Funding was provided by startup funds from the UConn School of Medicine and Department of Cell Biology, Center for Vascular Biology and Calhoun Cardiology Center, American Heart Association Innovative Project Award 19IPLOI34770151 (to P.A.M.); NIH National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Grants K99/R00-HL125727 and RF1-NS117449 (to P.A.M); American Heart Association Predoctoral award 23PRE1027078 (to O.M.F.O.) R01-AG046929 and R01-NS074256 (to R.Y.) and NIH GM135592 (to B.H.).

Combatting the “undruggable” RAS genes

Patients with pancreatic cancer have an overall poor prognosis: in most patients, the disease has already spread at the time of diagnosis, resulting in limited treatment options. Nearly 90 percent of pancreatic cancers are driven by KRAS mutations, the most common cancer-causing gene mutation across cancer types, which researchers long considered “undruggable.” In 2021, the first KRAS inhibitor was approved to treat non-small cell lung cancer with KRAS G12C mutations, but with longer follow-up, it has become clear that KRAS-mutant cancers can quickly evolve to resist therapies targeted at one specific form of the gene mutation.

“We’ve been excited by the prospect of RAS inhibition for pancreatic cancer, which remains one of the deadliest and most difficult forms of cancer to treat,” said co-corresponding senior author Ben Stanger, MD, PhD, the Hanna Wise Professor in Cancer Research and director of the Penn Pancreatic Cancer Research Center. “While the first wave of KRAS inhibitors have had limited impact in cancer care, this research shows that newer RAS inhibition tools may have an immune stimulatory effect, making them ideal to pair with immunotherapy for longer and better treatment response.”

Previous research led by Stanger and Robert Vonderheide, MD, DPhil, director of the Abramson Cancer Center, who is also co-corresponding author on this study, showed that a small molecule inhibitor specifically targeting KRAS G12D, the form of the mutation more commonly found in pancreatic cancer, stimulated the immune system while shrinking tumors or stopping cancer growth in preclinical mouse models of pancreatic cancer.

A new type of RAS inhibitor

In this study, the researchers used RAS(ON) multi-selective inhibitors, the investigational agent daraxonrasib (RMC-6236) and the preclinical tool compound RMC-7977 (both discovered by Revolution Medicines, whose scientists contributed to the study). These inhibitors use a different mechanism of action than most other KRAS inhibitors (including that in the previous study) to target the active or ON-state of multiple forms of RAS mutations.

“The benefit of this ‘multi-selective’ approach is that the inhibitors are designed to inhibit multiple RAS mutations, so if the cancer mutates, and another type of RAS mutation emerges, the treatment may not necessarily stop working,” Vonderheide explained.

The research team found that not only was RAS(ON) multi-selective inhibition effective in preclinical pancreatic cancer models, but it was even more effective when combined with immunotherapy. Using the combination approach, all mouse models had tumor shrinkage and half had a complete response, meaning the tumor was eliminated.

The research team used a Penn-developed immunocompetent model considered the gold standard worldwide for assessing potential therapies for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. This model allows the tumor to spontaneously evolve after implantation, making it possible to discern the drug’s impact on the surrounding tumor microenvironment. The research team found that RAS(ON) multi-selective inhibition reshaped the tumor microenvironment by bringing in more T cells and other immune cells, making the tumor particularly receptive to immunotherapy.

Next steps and clinical trial information

Daraxonrasib (RMC-6236) is already being tested in clinical trials across the United States. A clinical trial testing RAS(ON) inhibitors with other anticancer agents in certain patients with gastrointestinal solid tumors is now open at several sites across the country, including at Penn Medicine. Click here for more information about the study.

“We’re hopeful that we’re starting to crack the code on immunotherapy and RAS therapy for pancreatic cancer,” Vonderheide said. “After decades of limited progress, it’s encouraging to see new treatment approaches making their way into the clinic for patients.”

The study was supported by Revolution Medicines, the National Institutes of Health (R01CA252225, R01CA276512, P30DK050306, P30CA016520) the Department of Defense (W81XWH2210730), the Molecular Pathology and Imaging Core, A Love for Life, the Basser Center for BRCA, and the Penn Pancreatic Cancer Research Center.

Information for patients interested in joining a clinical trial: visit Penn Medicine’s Abramson Cancer Center Clinical Trial Information Service online or call 1-855-216-0098 to speak to a clinical trial navigator.

Editor’s note: Vonderheide is an inventor on patents relating to cancer cellular immunotherapy and KRAS immune epitopes.

In a recent study reported in the Feb. 15 issue of Nature Communications, scientists from The Jackson Laboratory (JAX) and UConn Health not only show how cancer hijacks this tightly regulated splicing and rearranging of RNA but also introduce a potential therapeutic strategy that could slow or even shrink aggressive and hard-to-treat tumors. This discovery could transform how we treat aggressive cancers, such as triple-negative breast cancer and certain brain tumors, where current treatment options are limited.

At the heart of this work, led by Olga Anczuków, an associate professor at JAX and co-program leader at the NCI-designated JAX Cancer Center, are tiny genetic elements called poison exons, nature’s own “off switch” for protein production. When these exons are included in an RNA message, they trigger its destruction before a protein can be made — preventing harmful cellular activity. In healthy cells, poison exons regulate the levels of key proteins, keeping the genetic machinery in check. But in cancer, this safety mechanism often fails.

Anczuków and her team, including Nathan Leclair, an MD/PhD graduate student at UConn Health and The Jackson Laboratory who spearheaded the research, and Mattia Brugiolo, a staff researcher who contributed his expertise, discovered that cancer cells suppress poison exon activity in a critical gene called TRA2β. As such, levels of TRA2β protein increase inside cancer cells, causing tumor proliferation.

Furthermore, the team found a correlation between levels of poison exons and patient outcomes. “We’ve shown for the first time that low levels of poison exon inclusion in the TRA2β gene are associated with poor outcomes in many different cancer types, and especially in aggressive and difficult-to-treat cancers,” said Anczuków. These include breast cancer, brain tumors, ovarian cancers, skin cancers, leukemias, and colorectal cancers, Anczuków explained.

Anczuków, Leclair, and Brugiolo then went on to see if they could increase the inclusion of the poison exon in the TRA2β gene and reactivate the kill switch. They found their answer in antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) — synthetic RNA fragments that can be designed to increase poison exon inclusion in specific ways. When introduced into cancer cells, ASOs effectively flipped the genetic switch, restoring the body’s natural ability to degrade excess TRA2β RNA and inhibit tumor progression.

“We found that ASOs can rapidly boost poison exon inclusion, essentially tricking the cancer cell into turning off its own growth signals,” said Leclair. “These poison exons work like a rheostat, quickly adjusting protein levels — and that could make ASOs a highly precise and effective therapy for aggressive cancers.”

Interestingly, when researchers completely removed TRA2β proteins using CRISPR gene editing, tumors continued to grow — suggesting that targeting the RNA rather than the protein could be a more effective approach. “This tells us that poison-exon-containing RNA doesn’t just silence TRA2β,” explained Anczuków. “It likely sequesters other RNA-binding proteins, creating an even more toxic environment for cancer cells.”

Further studies will refine ASO-based therapies and explore their delivery to tumors. However, preliminary data suggest that ASOs are highly specific and do not interfere with normal cellular function, making them promising candidates for future cancer treatments. This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health and the NCI-designated JAX Cancer Center.

Think about atoms — the building blocks of everything around us. Sometimes, they lose their electrons and become charged particles (that’s ionization). It happens in lightning, in plasma TVs, and even in the northern lights. Until now, scientists thought they could only control this process in limited ways.

Led by Ravi Bhardwaj, Full Professor at uOttawa’s Department of Physics, and PhD student Jean-Luc Begin, in collaboration with Professors Ebrahim Karimi, Paul Corkum and Thomas Brabec, the research introduces innovative methods to control ionization using specially structured light beams.

Ionization is crucial in strong field physics and attosecond science, where it describes how electrons escape from their atomic bonds. Traditionally, it was understood that this process could not be manipulated beyond certain limits. However, this new study challenges that notion.

“We have demonstrated that by using optical vortex beams — light beams that carry angular momentum — we can precisely control how an electron is ejected from an atom,” explains Professor Bhardwaj. “This discovery opens up new possibilities for enhancing technology in areas such as imaging and particle acceleration.”

The research took place over two years at uOttawa’s Advanced Research Complex. The team found that the handedness and properties of the optical vortex beams significantly affect ionization rates. By adjusting the position of a “null intensity region” within the beam, they achieved selective ionization, introducing a novel concept called optical dichroism.

Key findings from the research include:

1. The first demonstration of ionization that depends on the properties of light beams carrying angular momentum.
2. Enhanced control over ionization processes that could lead to advancements in imaging techniques beyond current limitations.
3. A new understanding of how light can be engineered to influence the behavior of electrons in unprecedented ways.

This work builds upon foundational theories in the field and has the potential to revolutionize how scientists approach ionization. This isn’t just for physics textbooks — it could lead to better medical imaging, faster computers, and more efficient ways to study materials. It’s especially promising for quantum computing, where controlling individual particles is crucial.

Professor Bhardwaj emphasizes the importance of this breakthrough: “Changing the way we think about how electrons are ejected has been challenging, but our research proves that using advanced laser technologies can lead to new discoveries that impact both science and technology.”

New research from Stanford University shows that water sprayed into a mixture of gases thought to be present in Earth’s early atmosphere can lead to the formation of organic molecules with carbon-nitrogen bonds, including uracil, one of the components of DNA and RNA.

The study, published in the journal Science Advances, adds evidence — and a new angle — to the much-disputed Miller-Urey hypothesis, which argues that life on the planet started from a lightning strike. That theory is based on a 1952 experiment showing that organic compounds could form with application of electricity to a mixture of water and inorganic gases.

In the current study, the researchers found that water spray, which produces small electrical charges, could do that work all by itself, no added electricity necessary.

“Microelectric discharges between oppositely charged water microdroplets make all the organic molecules observed previously in the Miller-Urey experiment, and we propose that this is a new mechanism for the prebiotic synthesis of molecules that constitute the building blocks of life,” said senior authorRichard Zare, the Marguerite Blake Wilbur Professor of Natural Science and professor of chemistry in Stanford’sSchool of Humanities and Sciences.

Microlightning’s power and potential

For a couple billion years after its formation, Earth is believed to have had a swirl of chemicals but almost no organic molecules with carbon-nitrogen bonds, which are essential for proteins, enzymes, nucleic acids, chlorophyll, and other compounds that make up living things today.

How these biological components came about has long puzzled scientists, and the Miller-Urey experiment provided one possible explanation: that lightning striking into the ocean and interacting with early planet gases like methane, ammonia, and hydrogen could create these organic molecules. Critics of that theory have pointed out that lightning is too infrequent and the ocean too large and dispersed for this to be a realistic cause.

Zare, along with postdoctoral scholars Yifan Meng and Yu Xia, and graduate student Jinheng Xu, propose another possibility with this research. The team first investigated how droplets of water developed different charges when divided by a spray or splash. They found that larger droplets often carried positive charges, while smaller ones were negative. When the oppositely charged droplets came close to each other, sparks jumped between them. Zare calls this “microlightning,” since the process is related to the way energy is built up and discharged as lightning in clouds. The researchers used high-speed cameras to document the flashes of light, which are hard to detect with the human eye.

Even though the tiny flashes of microlightning may be hard to see, they still carry a lot of energy. The researchers demonstrated that power by sending sprays of room temperature water into a gas mixture containing nitrogen, methane, carbon dioxide, and ammonia gases, which are all thought to be present on early Earth. This resulted in the formation of organic molecules with carbon-nitrogen bonds including hydrogen cyanide, the amino acid glycine, and uracil.

The researchers argue that these findings indicate that it was not necessarily lightning strikes, but the tiny sparks made by crashing waves or waterfalls that jump-started life on this planet.

“On early Earth, there were water sprays all over the place — into crevices or against rocks, and they can accumulate and create this chemical reaction,” Zare said. “I think this overcomes many of the problems people have with the Miller-Urey hypothesis.”

Zare’s research team focuses on investigating the potential power of small bits of water, including how water vapor mayhelp produce ammonia, a key ingredient in fertilizer, andhow water droplets spontaneously produce hydrogen peroxide.

“We usually think of water as so benign, but when it’s divided in the form of little droplets, water is highly reactive,” he said.

Acknowledgements

Zare is also a member of StanfordBio-X, theCardiovascular Institute,Stanford Cancer Institute, and theWu Tsai Neurosciences Institute as well as an affiliate of theStanford Woods Institute for the Environment.

This research received support from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

The study, published this week in Science Advances, estimates that emissions from WUI fires are proportionately about three times more likely to lead to annual premature deaths than emissions from wildfires in general. This is because the fires, and their associated emissions, are far closer to populated areas.

The work was conducted by an international team of researchers, led by scientists at the U.S. National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF NCAR). The study drew on a database of WUI fires and advanced computer modeling techniques.

“Even though the emissions of WUI fires are relatively small globally, the health impacts are proportionately large because they’re closer to human populations,” said NSF NCAR scientist Wenfu Tang, the lead author. “Pollutants emitted by WUI fires such as particulate matter and the precursors to ozone are more harmful because they’re not dispersing across hundreds or thousands of miles.”

The study was funded by NOAA and NSF.

The spread of WUI fires

The wildland-urban interface is the geographic area where wildland vegetation and developed land come together or intermingle. WUI areas have been expanding on all populated continents and now constitute about 5% of the world’s land area, excluding Antarctica.

With this expansion have come devastating fires. Some of the deadliest WUI blazes in recent years include the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires in Australia that directly killed 173 people, the 2018 Attica fires in Greece that killed 104, and the 2023 Lahaina Fire in Hawaii that killed 100. At the beginning of this year, a disastrous outbreak of fires in Southern California burned an estimated 16,000 homes, businesses, and other structures, with estimates of financial losses ranging up to $250 billion or higher.

A previous study led by Tang used satellite observations and machine learning techniques to show that the fraction of global fires that occur in WUI areas has increased significantly this century.

Building on that work, Tang and her colleagues wanted to estimate the health effects of the fire emissions beyond the immediate deaths. Certain pollutants associated with smoke, such as fine particulate matter and ground-level ozone, are especially harmful to cardiovascular and respiratory systems.

The researchers turned to an advanced NSF NCAR-based computer model, the Multi-Scale Infrastructure for Chemistry and Aerosols (MUSICA), to simulate pollutants from fires. Their modeling included carbon monoxide chemical tracers, which enabled them to estimate the sources of emissions and differentiate between wildland and WUI fires.

They also used a dataset of WUI fires in the recent two decades worldwide, which Tang and her colleagues developed last year.

To compare emissions of WUI fires with those from wildland fires, the researchers simulated four scenarios. These consisted of: no fires, both WUI and wildland fires, WUI fires only, and wildland fires only. The difference between all fires and just wildland fires indicated the impacts of WUI fire emissions.

The results showed that WUI fire emissions constituted 3.1% of all fire emissions across the six populated continents in 2020. However, the fractional contribution of WUI fire emissions to premature deaths was 8.8% of all fire emissions because of how many people were affected by smoke from WUI fires.

The numbers varied by continent depending on the proximity of dense populations to WUI fires. In North America, for example, WUI fires represented 6% of all fires and 9.3 % of premature deaths from emissions. In Europe, however, those numbers were 11.4% and 13.7%, respectively.

A critical factor that Tang wants to examine next is the difference in emissions from wildland fires that consume trees and other vegetation as opposed to WUI fires that burn down structures that often contain additional toxic substances. The smoke from different burned materials may have widely varying impacts on human health.

“It is very important to have an emission inventory that explicitly accounts for the burning of structures,” Tang said. “We need to know what is being burned in order to determine what is going up in smoke.”

The research, which was supported by the National Institutes of Health, could potentially lead to the identification of biomarkers that would serve as early indicators of a person’s risk for bone health issues later in life.

Bone mineral density is a measure of bone strength quantified by the amount of minerals in bone tissue. It peaks during young adulthood and slowly declines over the rest of the life cycle. BMD serves as an important marker for bone health and is commonly used to predict the risk of osteoporosis and other bone health conditions.

“Proteins are also substantial in the formation and maintenance of bone, and recently more studies have been trying to identify individual proteins associated with bone health,” says Emily Beglarian, the lead author and an epidemiology doctoral candidate in the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences at the Keck School of Medicine.

The study followed 304 obese/overweight Latino adolescents between the ages of 8 to 13 at baseline from the Study of Latino Adolescents at Risk for Type 2 Diabetes over an average period of three years. The researchers examined associations between over 650 proteins and annual measures of BMD, making this one of the first studies to evaluate these associations over years of follow-up. The proteins found to be associated with BMD were then inputted into a protein pathway database.

“The software determined what pathways the proteins were involved in within the human body. Our primary findings were that many of the proteins associated with BMD were involved in inflammatory and immune pathways in adolescent populations. There are other studies that found some of these same pathways were associated in older adult populations,” says Beglarian.

Existing studies suggest chronic inflammation can disrupt normal bone metabolism leading to lower BMD.

Importance of inclusive research

Currently, there are millions of adults in the US living with diseases characterized by low bone mass, and the prevalence is increasing due to our aging population. Childhood is a critical period for the development of BMD and this period can predict lifelong bone health.

“Until now, existing studies have centered on very specific populations. Most of them have small sample sizes, include either Chinese or non-Hispanic white populations, and focus on older adults — primarily on women because osteoporosis is four times more common in women than men,” says Beglarian.

“This is one of the first studies to investigate associations between proteins and BMD in younger populations. Investigating bone mineral density in early stages of life is important to determine how to address factors that may prevent people from reaching their potential peak bone density,” says Beglarian.

Advancing the understanding bone health biomarkers

Additionally, Beglarian examined associations between BMD and a subset of protein markers from the initial proteins, in a separate cohort of young adults. Here she found that several proteins had similar associations with lower BMD. Low BMD is a risk factor for development of adulthood osteopenia and osteoporosis.

The study’s findings could potentially inform the development of biomarkers of bone health to identify people at risk that might benefit from intervention.

“It was interesting to see the way in which our study overlapped and differed with existing studies. Previous research was investigating BMD at the end of life when levels are already much lower,” she says. “Through my research I hope to address factors that decrease BMD earlier in life to help people get to their highest potential peak density, so they are set up over the rest of their lifetime to have a higher BMD.”

About this study

Additional co-authors include Jiawen Carmen Chen, Zhenjiang Li, Elizabeth Costello, Hongxu Wang, Hailey Hampson, Zhanghua Chen, Sarah Rock, Wu Chen, Max T Aung, Frank D Gilliland, Rob McConnell, Sandrah P Eckel, David V Conti, Jesse A Goodrich, Lida Chatzi from USC; Tanya L Alderete from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; Damaskini Valvi from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; Nahid Rianon from UTHealth McGovern Medical School; Michael I Goran from The Saban Research Institute of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, and Miryoung Lee from University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

This work is primarily supported by grant R01ES029944 from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS], the National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant R01DK59211 (PI MG), the Southern California Children’s Environmental Health Center grants funded by NIEHS (5P01ES022845, P30ES007048, 5P01ES011627), the United States Environmental Protection Agency (RD83544101), and the Hastings Foundation.

“These atoll islands have the most threatened fresh groundwater on earth, and are relied upon by some of the most remote communities,” says Flinders University’s Professor Adrian Werner.

Modelling of a specialised form of fresh groundwater extraction, featuring horizontal wells, has the potential to reduce the risk of aquifer reserves being overused, and to provide drinking water of lower salinity.

Such wells, also known as infiltration galleries or skimming wells, play a crucial role in extracting fresh groundwater on atoll islands. They typically comprise horizontal or slightly inclined slotted pipes, surrounded by a gravel pack and connected to an extraction well or sump.

These infiltration galleries skim fresh groundwater from shallow depths while minimising the risk of saltwater intrusion beneath thin subterranean freshwater lenses, which typically range 3 to 21 metres in thickness. The design, construction and operation of these galleries need to be precise to avoid drawing seawater into the island’s water supply.

Such galleries are currently in operation across several atoll islands, and Flinders researchers have focused on nine small islands in the Pacific Ocean, including Kiritimati Atoll and Bonriki Island in Kiribati, Lifuka Island in Tonga, and the Cocos Islands.

While these systems provide crucial freshwater supplies, information is lacking about the optimal layout of infiltration galleries, pipe characteristics and pumping rates. There is also limited data on the performance of these galleries — specifically pumping rates and salinity levels — on small atoll islands.

A research team from the National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training (NCGRT) at Flinders University, led by Professor Werner and Dr Amir Jazayeri, was commissioned by the Pacific Community (SPC), under the management of Mr Peter Sinclair, to address these research gaps and evaluate the performance of infiltration galleries across Pacific islands.

They also performed modelling to assess how infiltration galleries on atolls will be affected by rising sea levels in the future.

This comprehensive study involved collecting extensive data on the hydraulic properties of atoll island aquifers and analysing the design of infiltration galleries across the region.

Valuable insights were gathered from infiltration gallery operators during Flinders University’s participation in the Pacific Groundwater Gallery Knowledge Exchange (PGGKE) workshop, held on Kiritimati Atoll (Kiribati) in November 2023.

The research also incorporated computer modelling simulations and physical laboratory experiments conducted at Flinders University’s Sand Tank Laboratory, to gain a deeper understanding of infiltration gallery performance.

The findings of this study have been published as a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) scientific technical report, providing critical guidance for sustainable groundwater management in the Pacific.

“While many studies have examined horizontal wells in other contexts, the specific conditions of small islands, especially atolls, places unique demands on infiltration galleries,” says Professor Werner.

Dr Jazayeri says the research team continues to focus on solutions to protect freshwater resources and serve the demands of isolated communities across the Pacific, using a wide range of research techniques.

“We believe that expanding the use of infiltration gallery systems in other coastal aquifers can significantly contribute to managing crucial coastal freshwater resources, both in Australia and globally,” says Dr Jazayeri.

The review article — ‘Construction and performance of infiltration galleries (skimming wells): A review of applications to Pacific atoll islands’ (2025) by Amir Jazayeri and Adrian Werner — has been published in the Journal of Hydrology. DOI:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2024.132581

Professor Werner is confident the findings will have wider applications across many countries.

“The insights gained from applying infiltration galleries to Pacific atolls offers opportunities for more widespread applications within continental aquifers, especially to capture submarine fresh groundwater discharge that is otherwise lost through mixing with seawater and to mitigate seawater intrusion,” he says.

“This all contributes to global groundwater management strategies.”

Professor Werner says further research is now needed into optimal designs and wider application in continental aquifers.

Astrophysicists have once again enriched our knowledge of the cosmos with a new discovery: two small planets orbiting TOI-1453. Located at around 250 light years from Earth in the Draco constellation, this star is part of a binary system (a pair of stars orbiting each other) and is slightly cooler and smaller than our Sun. Around this star are two planets, a super-Earth and a sub-Neptune. These are types of planets that are absent from our own solar system, but paradoxically constitute the most common classes of planet in the Milky Way. This discovery sheds light on a planetary configuration that could provide valuable clues to the formation and evolution of planets.

Using data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and the HARPS-N high-resolution spectrograph, the researchers were able to identify TOI-1453 b and TOI-1453 c, the two exoplanets orbiting TOI-1453. “The two planets present an interesting contrast in their characteristics,” explains Manu Stalport, astrophysicist at the University of Liège and first author of the publication. TOI-1453 b is a super-Earth, slightly larger than our planet, and probably rocky. It completes its orbit in just 4.3 days, making it a very close planet to its star. In contrast, TOI-1453 c is a sub-Neptune, about 2.2 times the size of Earth but with an extraordinarily low mass of just 2.9 Earth masses. This makes it one of the least dense sub-Neptunes ever discovered, which raises questions about its composition.”

Transit and radial velocity

Detecting exoplanets remains a complex task. The team relied on two key methods to confirm their discoveries. The transit method (TESS data) measures the size and orbital period as the planet passes in front of its host star, causing a slight decrease in brightness. The second method used is radial velocity measurement (HARPS-N data), which involves observing the variations in the velocity of a star under the effect of the gravity of a planet orbiting it. By studying the gravitational influence exerted by the planets on their host star, the researchers were able to measure their masses and densities.

“All these observations have revealed that TOI-1453 c is extremely light for its size, suggesting that it could have a thick hydrogen-rich atmosphere or a composition dominated by water. This makes it an ideal candidate for future atmospheric studies,” enthuses Manu Stalport. Understanding their formation and evolution could provide clues about the development of planetary systems, including our own.”

What’s more, the two planets orbit in a configuration close to a 3:2 resonance, meaning that for every three orbits of the inner planet, the outer planet completes almost exactly two. Such resonances are considered a natural consequence of orbital migration, offering clues as to how the planets move and settle into their final orbits.

This discovery opens up new research prospects. Observational instruments such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) could analyse TOI-1453 c’s atmosphere to determine its main composition. If this planet has a substantial hydrogen-rich atmosphere or a water-dominated interior, it could redefine our understanding of sub-Neptunes and their formation.