NASA has selected University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa scientists to lead one of three teams developing instruments for Moon travel through the Artemis campaign. Two instruments, including UH’s, will be integrated onto a Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV), which astronauts will drive on the Moon. Another instrument will orbit the Moon.
Closeup of the Moon (Photo credit: NASA)
“I’m so excited to see this project come into reality,” said Matthew Siegler, associate researcher in the Hawaiʻi Institute of Geophysics and Planetology (HIGP) at the UH Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, who will lead the team developing the Lunar Microwave Active-Passive Spectrometer (L-MAPS). “UH has become a major player in the search for ice on the Moon. This instrument selection takes us to the next level.”
The L-MAPS instrument will help determine what is below the Moon’s surface, the heat production of the Moon and search for possible locations of buried ice. The UH science and spacecraft engineering team will work in partnership with instruments developed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the German Technical University at Dresden.
Siegler and deputy principal investigator Shannon Brown, a researcher at JPL, and their team have been designing and testing the L-MAPS instrument for more than five years, preparing for an opportunity to get to the Moon. Being selected for the LTV instrument team moves the development to the next stage—the build—which will primarily take place at JPL.
Outfitting the first crew-driven vehicle on the Moon in 50 years
Matthew Siegler, associate researcher at HIGP
The LTV vehicle is part of NASA’s efforts to explore the lunar surface as part of the Artemis campaign and is the first crew-driven vehicle to operate on the Moon in more than 50 years. Designed to hold up to two astronauts, as well as operate remotely without a crew, this surface vehicle will enable NASA to achieve more of its science and exploration goals over a wide swath of lunar terrain.
In the NASA announcement, Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., emphasized that the Artemis Lunar Terrain Vehicle will advance humanity across the lunar frontier toward exploration and discovery and added that the instruments planned for the LTV combine the best of human and robotic exploration.
When combined, data from the L-MAPS and other instruments will paint a picture of the components of the lunar surface and subsurface to support human exploration and will uncover clues to the history of rocky worlds in our solar system.
“I feel incredibly lucky to be working on lunar research in a time when NASA has prioritized the Artemis return of humans to the Moon,” said Siegler. “Work like this is possible because of researchers at the University of Hawaiʻi working for years leading in planetary science and developing spaceflight technologies. It is exciting to be in the right place and time to ride this wave.”
Collaboration is key to success
At JPL, the L-MAPS instrument will be built with components from Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt and Ohio State University. Final testing will be done partially at UH Mānoa. The instrument production and operation on the Moon will be managed by HIGP faculty Miguel Nunes and Trevor Sorensen and will include many roles for UH faculty, undergraduate and graduate students.
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ISS astronauts sit in the space station and study the effects of microgravity on human health. | Credit: NASA
Living in microgravity changes the human body — and usually for the worse. Bone density decreases, muscles atrophy, and eyes swell, to name a few of the physical side effects of long-duration spaceflight. However, according to a new study, there’s some good news for astronauts: Spending extended time on the International Space Station (ISS) doesn’t pose any risks to their arteries.
Researchers studied 13 NASA astronaut volunteers, ranging in age from the late 30s to late 50s, who spent between four months and a year on the ISS. They took ultrasound images of the participants’ carotid and brachial arteries before, during and immediately after spaceflight, as well as at the one-, three-, and five-year marks following spaceflight. And, wonderful news — everyone’s arteries looked great.
“Long-duration spaceflight missions on the ISS did not result in thickening of the carotid artery wall, increased CCA stiffness, endothelial dysfunction, or development of new symptoms or signs of cardiovascular disease in the first 5 years after long-duration spaceflight,” wrote the researchers in their study. They also noted that any risk of cardiovascular disease was likely due to natural aging, not spaceflight.
The study did, however, find oxidative stress and inflammation — signs of concern for the cardiovascular system — in the astronauts’ blood and urine samples. These disappeared within one week of returning to Earth. Ultimately, it seems that the cardiovascular system is quite resilient when it comes to spending time in microgravity.
Of course, this is just one study. As we look toward returning to the moon and establishing a human presence on Mars, we’ll want to continue medical research on astronauts to ensure their long-term health.
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“Continued long-term surveillance of cardiovascular health in the larger astronaut cohort is necessary to characterize the lifetime risk of disease, particularly in astronauts who venture beyond low Earth orbit and are exposed to deep space radiation,” wrote the researchers.
A paper about the research was published on June 10 in the Journal of Applied Physiology.
Earlier this month, astronomers studying the young star V883 Orionis reported spotting complex organic molecules floating in its dusty disk that’s in the process of forming planets.
The discovery hints that life’s chemical toolbox gets stocked well before rocky worlds are even stirred together.
Among the 17 molecular species identified were ethylene glycol and glycolonitrile, both considered stepping stones toward sugars and amino acids.
The project was led by Abubakar Fadul at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA).
Young star named V883 Orionis
V883 Orionis, which is 1,300 light-years away in Orion, is flaring as it gorges on infalling gas, briefly raising parts of its protoplanetary disk above the water-ice line.
That extra warmth liberates chemicals that were frozen onto dust grains, which sends tell-tale radio signals toward Earth.
Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array in Chile (ALMA), Fadul’s team mapped radiation frequencies between 348 and 366 GHz, isolating 15 emission lines from ethylene glycol and six from glycolonitrile.
The hotter molecule traces gas around 570°F (300°C), while its cooler cousin prefers about 190°F (88°C).
“Our finding points to a straight line of chemical enrichment and increasing complexity between interstellar clouds and fully evolved planetary systems,” said Fadul.
Life molecules freed from ice
Comet observations show that ethylene glycol easily slips from ice when sunlight or mild heat lofts it into space. V883 Orionis supplies the same gentle oven, but on a grander, disk-wide scale.
Glycolonitrile has been detected in dense clouds near the galactic center, proving it can form and survive in harsh stellar nurseries. Its presence in V883 Orionis suggests that survival continues right into the planet-building zone.
In space, ethylene glycol can oxidize into glycolaldehyde, a simple, two-carbon sugar. That sugar was spotted around a young solar-type protostar in Ophiuchus nine years ago.
Laboratory experiments show that glycolonitrile reacts with ammonia to yield glycine, the simplest amino acid, and joins with other nitriles to make adenine, one of DNA’s four bases.
Finding both precursors in the same disk raises the possibility that sugars, acids, and nascent genetic material can migrate together onto pebbles that will seed future planets.
Life’s chemistry in V883 Orionis’ dust
Many researchers believed outbursts and radiation destroyed inherited molecules, requiring disks to completely rebuild their chemistry from scratch. The new observation tilts the debate back toward inheritance.
Spectral surveys of massive, star-forming cores already list more than two hundred organic species, including ethylene glycol and relatives.
Chemical models show methanol, once locked in ice, endures for millions of years in disk midplanes, later feeding bigger molecules such as ethylene glycol.
This artist’s impression shows the planet-forming disk around the star V883 Orionis. In the outermost part of the disk, volatile gases are frozen out as ice, which contains complex organic molecules. The inset image shows the chemical structure of complex organic molecules detected and presumed in the protoplanetary disk (from left to right): propionitrile (ethyl cyanide), glycolonitrile, alanine, glycine, ethylene glycol, and acetonitrile (methyl cyanide). Click image to enlarge. Credit: ESO/MPIA/HdA
Because the outburst heats a wide area of the disk, astronomers can track the chemistry across different regions.
These regions will eventually become asteroid belts, icy rings, and zones where giant planets form – offering a preview of the chemical layout in developing planetary systems.
Ancient ice holds life clues
Rosetta’s ROSINA instrument sniffed glycine venting from comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2016. That find proved that amino acid building blocks can hitch rides on icy bodies that eventually rain down on young planets.
Ethylene glycol has turned up in the tails of comets like Lemmon and Lovejoy, underscoring the match between solar system leftovers and V883 Orionis chemistry.
Comets act as time capsules, preserving the Sun’s protoplanetary ice for 4.5 billion years.
Each molecular match between those relics and faraway disks strengthens the argument that the delivery of life-building organics to young planets is a standard step, not a quirk of our history
Gaps the models must close
Current disk simulations underproduce glycolonitrile, indicating that additional surface pathways, such as UV-driven reactions between formaldehyde, ammonia, and hydrogen cyanide, are still missing.
Adding these energetic routes may also explain why the molecule pops into the gas so readily during stellar flares.
Laboratory studies on cold-grain chemistry continue to improve our understanding of reaction networks.
However, these networks often leave out the latest radiation experiments, forcing scientists to estimate reaction rates that are still poorly measured.
Questions still remain
The ALMA spectra show almost no sign of glycolaldehyde, even though the molecule readily converts to ethylene glycol in laboratory ice studies.
Researchers wonder whether rapid hydrogenation or destruction by hydroxyl radicals keeps the sugar’s signature too faint to see.
Better spectral resolution and follow-up at other wavelengths will help disentangle blended lines and perhaps reveal even heftier organics, from simple peptides to phospholipid precursors.
Scientists still don’t know whether the chemical levels change across the disk or follow patterns called snow lines for each molecule. Answering that question would take sharper images than ALMA can currently provide.
Next steps for V883 Orionis
The team plans to revisit V883 Orionis once the outburst subsides, so that they can compare hot and cold chemistry in the same system. Such time-lapse snapshots could show which molecules linger and which vanish as the disk cools.
Meanwhile, other groups are targeting similar flare-up stars of different ages, aiming to chart a timeline of organic complexity across the journey from interstellar cloud to comet.
Future disk surveys with the upcoming ngVLA will be ten times more sensitive. This could help detect sugars, peptides, and key cell-forming molecules in many star-forming regions.
Planets may start life-ready
If most disks start with a rich stockpile of prebiotic molecules, nascent planets everywhere may inherit a chemical head start on life.
Meteorites that fall to Earth have been found to contain the building blocks of genetic material, like cytosine and uracil.
Scientists already simulate how comet impacts on young planets like Earth could have delivered the building blocks of life.
Now, they’re extending those simulations to distant star systems like V883 Orionis to see if young planets there could receive similar amounts.
The new ALMA data suggest that delivery service begins well before meteorites form, boosting the odds that rocky worlds across the galaxy begin their stories with similar ingredients.
The study is published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
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The Giant Magellan Telescope received official approval from the National Science Foundation (NSF) confirming that the observatory will advance into its Major Facilities Final Design Phase, one of the final steps before becoming eligible for federal construction funding. This critical milestone recognizes the Giant Magellan’s scientific merit, construction progress, and alignment with U.S. priorities in science and technology.
The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA), a partnership between the Harvard College Observatory and Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO), is playing a major role in the Giant Magellan with the development of the GMT-Consortium Large Earth Finder (G-CLEF) spectrograph. G-CLEF will measure the slight wobbles of stars created by the gravitational pull of an orbiting planet, allowing the Giant Magellan to measure masses of Earth-class planets, including possibly those in the habitable zone where liquid water could exist on the planet’s surface. The G-CLEF spectrograph will also be able to detect many important molecules in the atmospheres of exoplanets, including those created by life on Earth. Other important science to be tackled by the GMT include studies of supernovas, the earliest galaxies and the progenitors of planets.
In addition to G-CLEF, engineers and scientists from SAO are leading work on the Moderate Dispersion Optical Spectrograph for the Giant Magellan, which will be used for research ranging from the formation of stars and planets to cosmology.
“We are thrilled to take the next steps with the Giant Magellan Telescope and are eagerly anticipating the many discoveries that lie ahead,” said CfA Director Dr Lisa Kewley. “We are grateful that the NSF is supporting this transformational, next generation telescope.”
“What a great moment for the future of American astronomy,” said Dr. Robert Shelton, President of the Giant Magellan Telescope. “The NSF’s decision to advance us into its Final Design Phase reaffirms the strength of our observatory and the decades of preparation by our dedicated team. With significant construction already underway across the United States and at our site in Chile, this milestone positions our nation to lead the next era of discovery. We greatly appreciate the NSF’s vote of confidence and its continued commitment to maintaining American leadership in science, engineering, and precision manufacturing.”
Backed by nearly $1 billion in private funding – the largest private investment ever made in ground-based astronomy – the Giant Magellan is built by an international consortium of 15 universities and research institutions, including the University of Arizona, Carnegie Institution for Science, The University of Texas at Austin, Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, University of Chicago, São Paulo Research Foundation, Texas A&M University, Northwestern University, Harvard University, Astronomy Australia Ltd., Australian National University, Smithsonian Institution, Weizmann Institute of Science, Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, and Arizona State University.
The Giant Magellan is already 40% under construction, with major components manufactured and tested in facilities across 36 states in the U.S., including advanced optics and primary mirrors in Arizona, science instruments in multiple states including Texas, and the telescope mount structure in Illinois. At the observatory’s privately owned site in Chile, major infrastructure progress includes utilities, roads, support structures, and a fully excavated foundation for the enclosure.
The NSF’s decision follows the release of its FY2026 Budget Request to Congress and the recent U.S. Extremely Large Telescope External Evaluation Panel Report. The report expressed “confidence that the Giant Magellan Telescope will progress through FDP [Final Design Phase] to a successful FDR [Final Design Review] and construction, if approved.”
Over the last five years, the observatory has successfully passed all federally required reviews and is prepared to privately finance the Final Design Phase. This reflects the project’s advanced progress and expertise of its international consortium, with many design elements already exceeding NSF Final Design Review benchmarks.
“This is more than an investment in a telescope,” said Dr. Walter Massey, Board Chair of the Giant Magellan Telescope and former NSF Director. “It is a strategic necessity for the United States to maintain leadership in astrophysics, engineering, and artificial intelligence. The Giant Magellan Telescope will work in synergy with billions of dollars already invested in U.S. research facilities around the world, creating a powerful ecosystem of tools that ensure American scientists have the best resources to lead discovery.”
Strategically located in Chile’s Atacama Desert, the Giant Magellan occupies one of the most scientifically valuable observing sites on Earth. Chile offers more than 300 clear nights each year, exceptional atmospheric stability, and direct access to the southern sky and the galactic center of the Milky Way. The observatory amplifies billions in existing NSF investments in Chile, including the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, ALMA, and Gemini South, forming the cornerstone of a U.S.-led, multi-decade astronomical strategy in the Southern Hemisphere.
The Rubin Observatory, which is now nearing full operations, will conduct an unprecedented all-sky survey to discover rare, fast-changing cosmic events that offer powerful new ways to understand the evolution and structure of our Universe. But Rubin is only the first step. As part of a multi-decade strategy to ensure U.S. leadership in the Southern Hemisphere, astronomers will need the Giant Magellan’s greater sensitivity, resolution, and spectroscopic capabilities to fully investigate these discoveries. Without access to the Giant Magellan, Rubin’s survey potential will be largely out of reach for U.S. astronomers, and the transformational science it enables will be led by other nations with access to the next generation of “extremely large telescopes.”
The Giant Magellan Telescope is committed to the science goals of the U.S. Extremely Large Telescope Program, the top-ranked priority in the National Academies’ 2020 Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics. The report called the program “absolutely essential if the United States is to maintain a position as a leader in ground-based astronomy.”
About the Center for Astrophysics
The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian is a collaboration between Harvard and the Smithsonian designed to ask—and ultimately answer—humanity’s greatest unresolved questions about the nature of the universe. The Center for Astrophysics is headquartered in Cambridge, MA, with research facilities across the U.S. and around the world.
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Interstellar comet ‘Oumuamua floats in space. | Credit: NASA, ESA, and J. Olmsted and F. Summers (STScI)
The newly discovered interstellar object 3I/ATLAS could be a piece of “possibly hostile” extraterrestrial technology in disguise, according to controversial research from a small group of scientists, including a renowned alien-hunting astronomer.
Their paper, which has not been peer-reviewed, echoes similar claims previously made about ‘Oumuamua, the first-ever cosmic interloper that was discovered in 2017.
But experts have told Live Science that the new claims are “nonsense” and “insulting,” and insist that the available evidence points toward the object being completely natural.
3I/ATLAS was discovered on July 1 barreling toward the sun at more than 130,000 mph (210,000 km/h), and was confirmed to be an interstellar object less than 24 hours later. Initial observations strongly suggest it is a large comet surrounded by a cloud of ice, gas and dust called a coma, stretching up to 15 miles (24 kilometers) across. A computer model simulating where it originated from hinted that it could be up to 3 billion years older than our solar system, potentially making it the oldest comet ever seen.
But in a new paper, uploaded July 16 to the preprint server arXiv, a trio of researchers have questioned whether the comet is actually some form of covert alien tech sent here by an advanced, potentially aggressive extraterrestrial civilization.
The researchers described the new paper as a “pedagogical exercise,” or thought experiment, and offer no clear evidence of alien involvement. Instead, they point at the comet’s “anomalous characteristics” and provide alternative theories to explain them.
An image of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS | Credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/K. Meech (IfA/U. Hawaii); Image Processing: Jen Miller & Mahdi Zamani (NSF NOIRLab)
The study’s most notable author is Avi Loeb, an astronomer at Harvard University who is renowned for linking extraterrestrial objects to intelligent aliens. He is the head of the Galileo Project, which is attempting to detect evidence of technosignatures and UFOs. In 2023, he led a controversial expedition that claimed to have collected pieces of possible alien tech left behind by an unconfirmed interstellar meteorite in the Pacific Ocean. (These claims have since been largely debunked by outside researchers).
Loeb was also the primary researcher who claimed that the unusual shape and non-gravitational acceleration of the interstellar object ‘Oumuamua were signs that it was an alien probe.
Today, the general consensus is that ‘Oumuamua was an asteroid that was leaking gas into space, similar to a comet. However, Loeb and his colleagues have continued to advocate its potential alien origin and have proposed missions to track down the wandering space rock.
Loeb’s co-authors for the new study are both associated with the Initiative for Interstellar Studies (i4is), a U.K. institute dedicated to planning future missions to alien star systems.
In a blog post explaining the new paper, Loeb wrote that if 3I/ATLAS is a “technological artifact” it could be evidence of the dark forest hypothesis, which argues that the reason we have not found evidence of extraterrestrial life is that they are staying silent to remain invisible to potential predators or prey.
“The consequences, should the hypothesis turn out to be correct, could potentially be dire for humanity, and would possibly require defensive measures to be undertaken,” he wrote.
An image of the comet 3I/ATLAS in space | Credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/K. Meech (IfA/U. Hawaii) / Image Processing: Jen Miller & Mahdi Zamani (NSF NOIRLab)
Alien ‘evidence’
Most of the points laid out in the new paper relate to the unusual trajectory of 3I/ATLAS. The object is moving significantly faster than the only other known interstellar objects — ‘Oumuamua and Comet Borisov, which was spotted in 2019 — and has entered the solar system at a different angle from its predecessors, approaching the sun side-on relative to our star’s orbit through the Milky Way.
Loeb wrote that the object’s trajectory “offers various benefits to an extraterrestrial intelligence” that may be using it to subtly spy on Earth. One such benefit is that 3I/ATLAS will make relatively close approaches to three planets: Jupiter, Mars and Venus. And the minimum distances between the object and these worlds could enable aliens to discretely deploy “gadgets” there, Loeb wrote.
3I/ATLAS will also be hidden on the opposite side of the sun to Earth when it reaches its closest point to our home star in late October. “This could be intentional to avoid detailed observations from Earth-based telescopes when the object is brightest or when gadgets are sent to Earth from that hidden vantage point,” Loeb wrote.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Wikimedia Commons
The unusually high speed of 3I/ATLAS also makes it very hard to launch a spacecraft to intercept it before it exits the solar system, which could be another potential sign of clandestine alien activity, the researchers argued.
Based on its current speed, Loeb also noted that 3I/ATLAS would have entered the outer boundaries of the solar system around 8,000 years ago, which is “roughly when human-made technologies became advanced enough to start documenting history on Earth.” Although, it is unclear what he is trying to imply by saying this.
The researchers also argued that there is insufficient evidence to show conclusively that 3I/ATLAS is a comet, especially as researchers are yet to identify any “volatiles,” or specific chemicals associated with comets, within its coma.
Controversial claims
Since 3I/ATLAS was discovered, researchers have been trying to identify it, and so far, the overwhelming consensus is that it is a comet.
“There have been numerous telescopic observations of 3I/ATLAS demonstrating that it’s displaying classical signatures of cometary activity,” Darryl Seligman, an astronomer at Michigan State University who led the first study quantifying 3I/ATLAS, told Live Science in an email.
“All evidence points to this being an ordinary comet that was ejected from another solar system, just as countless billions of comets have been ejected from our own solar system,” added Samantha Lawler, an astronomer at the University of Regina in Canada who specializes in solar system dynamics.
Any assumptions about the object’s lack of volatiles is also premature at this time. “The object is still pretty far away from the sun, so no, we wouldn’t typically expect to find direct evidence of volatiles necessarily,” Seligman said. Instead, these compounds will likely become apparent in the coming weeks and months, he added.
Loeb admits that the alien technology scenario is a long shot: “By far, the most likely outcome will be that 3I/ATLAS is a completely natural interstellar object, probably a comet,” he wrote in the blog post.
A gif animation showing 3I/ATLAS traveling through a background of stars. | Credit: ESA
Given the available evidence, many of the researchers who spoke to Live Science are disappointed with the new paper and pointed out that it distracts from the work of other scientists.
“Astronomers all around the world have been thrilled at the arrival of 3I/ATLAS, collaborating to use advanced telescopes to learn about this visitor,” Chris Lintott, an astronomer at the University of Oxford who was part of the team that simulated 3I/ATLAS’s galactic origins, told Live Science in an email. “Any suggestion that it’s artificial is nonsense on stilts, and is an insult to the exciting work going on to understand this object.”
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Loeb is no stranger to this type of criticism and has defended his position, writing that “the hypothesis is an interesting exercise in its own right, and is fun to explore, irrespective of its likely validity.”
However, while it is important to remain open-minded about any “testable prediction,” the new paper pushes this sentiment to the limit, Lawler told Live Science in an email. “In my experience, the vast majority of scientists subscribe to the idea that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and the evidence presented is absolutely not extraordinary.”
This story was provided by Live Science, a sister site of Space.com.
Cataracts remain one of the most prevalent and debilitating eye conditions, often requiring surgical intervention to restore sight. Yet even after surgery, many patients develop anterior subcapsular cataracts (ASC), characterized by fibrotic tissue growth beneath the lens capsule. This complication arises from epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), a process where lens epithelial cells acquire migratory, fibrotic traits. While transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β) is known to drive this transition, the downstream molecular mechanisms remain elusive. Emerging evidence suggests that transcription factors like NR2F1 may play a role in fibrosis across tissues. Due to these challenges, there is a pressing need to investigate molecular regulators that drive EMT and fibrotic cataracts.
In a recent study (DOI: 10.1016/j.gendis.2025.101549) led by scientists at Chongqing Medical University and Chongqing General Hospital, researchers uncovered a novel regulatory axis driving cataract-associated fibrosis. The findings, published on January 28, 2025, in Genes & Diseases, reveal that NR2F1 promotes fibrosis by directly activating the STAT3 signaling pathway. Using both TGF-β1-treated human lens epithelial cells and a mouse model of ASC, the team discovered that defective autophagy boosts NR2F1 protein accumulation, fueling cell death and fibrotic plaque formation. The research not only identifies a new molecular mechanism behind cataract progression but also highlights potential therapeutic targets for intervention.
The researchers began by confirming elevated NR2F1 protein levels in cataract-affected lens tissues and TGF-β1-stimulated human lens epithelial cells. While mRNA levels of NR2F1 dropped, its protein levels rose—suggesting post-transcriptional dysregulation. Further investigation revealed that impaired autophagy, a cellular cleanup process, was responsible for NR2F1 protein buildup. Blocking autophagy in cells mimicked the TGF-β1 effect, reinforcing this link.
Functionally, silencing NR2F1 dramatically suppressed the EMT process, reduced expression of fibrotic markers (FN1, VIM, α-SMA), and curbed cell migration and apoptosis. In ASC mouse models, injection of an NR2F1-silencing AAV led to visibly clearer lenses and fewer fibrotic plaques. Mechanistic experiments revealed that NR2F1 directly binds to the promoter of STAT3, triggering its phosphorylation and downstream activation.
The team validated the significance of this interaction by using a p-STAT3 inhibitor, which successfully reduced fibrotic and apoptotic markers. These findings suggest that the NR2F1-STAT3 axis is a central driver of fibrosis in cataract formation, operating through autophagy disruption and transcriptional reprogramming. This dual insight—both mechanistic and therapeutic—provides a promising direction for combating fibrotic cataracts beyond current surgical solutions.
Our study uncovers a critical link between autophagy dysfunction and fibrotic cataract formation. By identifying NR2F1 as a direct activator of the STAT3 pathway, we’ve revealed a powerful mechanism that fuels lens fibrosis and cell death. What’s most exciting is the translational potential—by blocking this pathway, we were able to significantly reverse cataract symptoms in animal models. This opens up new possibilities for non-surgical therapies targeting the root molecular causes of lens opacification.”
Prof. Wenjuan Wan, senior author of the study
The identification of the NR2F1-STAT3 signaling pathway as a driver of cataract-associated fibrosis holds significant clinical potential. Current treatments rely heavily on surgery, yet fibrotic complications frequently recur and impair long-term outcomes. By targeting NR2F1, it may be possible to develop pharmaceutical agents that prevent fibrosis at the molecular level—either as stand-alone therapies or as adjuncts to surgery. Beyond cataracts, the NR2F1-STAT3 axis may also be relevant to other fibrotic diseases, offering broad implications across fields like oncology and tissue regeneration. Continued research is essential to validate these findings in clinical settings and to translate them into patient-centered solutions.
Source:
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Journal reference:
Zuo, H., et al. (2025). Autophagy-induced NR2F1 activation promotes the apoptosis of lens epithelial cells and facilitates cataract-associated fibrosis through targeting STAT3. Genes & Diseases. doi.org/10.1016/j.gendis.2025.101549.
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One of the driving personalities behind the Hubble Space Telescope is sounding the alarm on president Donald Trump’s disastrous space policy.
That former NASA associate administrator for spaceflight is Joe Rothenberg, who warns that the agency’s current predicament — mass layoffs and deferred resignations resulting in a loss of 20 percent of its workforce and a complete overhaul of agency culture — may already be too bad to fix.
“What is happening at NASA has long term and potentially unrecoverable consequences to US scientific and technology leadership in not only space but in technology that impacts our quality of life on Earth,” Rothenberg said on a LinkedIn post from former NASA astrobiologist and current policy watcher Keith Cowing.
This second Trump Administration and the brass it’s put in charge of NASA have, as the former Hubble operations manager put it, “mortgaged America’s space and scientific research capabilities.” According to Rothenberg, NASA may now be “well beyond the point of being able to be recovered by any potential restoration of funding by Congress.”
A longtime veteran of both the private and public spaceflight worlds, Rothenberg, who began his career at Grumman Aerospace six decades ago and who now sits on the boards of multiple private aerospace companies, recalled that NASA “in its early days inspired career pursuits in science and engineering.”
As a result, the United States became a leader not only in space exploration, but in “developing technology that has significantly improved medical, communications, and numerous quality of life applications.”
With Trump’s increasingly successful gutting of the agency and “indiscriminate cuts in our nation’s scientific research program budgets,” Rothenberg warns that the United States “now faces the strong possibility of the reverse happening,” with would-be engineers and scientists being discouraged from entering the industry in the first place, creating cascading decades of lost opportunity for America’s space efforts.
Indeed, we’ve already seen a trend of both fledgling and established scientists considering fleeing the US over Trump’s disastrous policies — and to Rothenberg’s mind, that ripple effect may continue well into the future.
In his “America First” quest, Rothenberg argues, Trump has weakened “our economic and military leadership” — and hurt the country’s status in the global space race, too.
More on Trump’s space policy: NASA Employees Submit “Formal Dissent” Saying Trump’s Cuts Are So Brutal That Astronauts Could Die
