eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. A spatial-attentional mechanism underlies action-related distortions of time judgment

   This article has 1 author:

   1. Liyu Cao

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important paper examined how attention affects temporal binding. Through a combination of careful experimental designs and computational modelling, this study provides solid evidence highlighting the role of attention in shaping temporal binding. Overall, the present findings will be of interest to cognitive scientists studying phenomena related to time perception, temporal binding, and spatial attention.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. A Plasmodium falciparum MORC protein complex modulates epigenetic control of gene expression through interaction with heterochromatin

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Maneesh Kumar Singh
   2. Victoria Ann Bonnell
   3. Israel Tojal Da Silva
   4. Verônica Feijoli Santiago
   5. Miriam Santos Moraes
   6. Jack Adderley
   7. Christian Doerig
   8. Giuseppe Palmisano
   9. Manuel Llinas
   10. Celia RS Garcia

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study provides valuable insights into how chromatin-bound PfMORC controls gene expression in the asexual blood stage of Plasmodium falciparum. By interacting with key nuclear proteins, PfMORC is predicted to affect expression of genes relating to host invasion and variable subtelomeric gene families. Correlating transcriptomic data with in vivo chromatin analysis, the study provides convincing evidence for the role of PfMORC in epigenetic transcriptional regulation.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Development and assessment of a sustainable PhD internship program supporting diverse biomedical career outcomes

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Patrick Brandt
   2. Dawayne Whittington
   3. Kimberley D Wood
   4. Christopher Holmquist
   5. Ana T Nogueira
   6. Christiann H Gaines
   7. Patrick Brennwald
   8. Rebekah L Layton

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important study evaluates the outcomes of a single-institution pilot program designed to provide graduate students and postdoctoral fellows with internship opportunities in areas representing diverse career paths in the life sciences. The data convincingly show the benefit of internships to students and postdocs, their research advisors, and potential employers, without adverse impacts on scientific productivity. This work will be of interest to multiple stakeholders in graduate and postgraduate life sciences education and should stimulate further research into how such programs can best be broadly implemented.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Microphase separation produces interfacial environment within diblock biomolecular condensates

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Andrew P Latham
   2. Longchen Zhu
   3. Dina A Sharon
   4. Songtao Ye
   5. Adam P Willard
   6. Xin Zhang
   7. Bin Zhang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important study investigates the structural organization of a series of diblock elastin-like polypeptide condensates. The methodology is highly compelling, as it combines multiscale simulations and fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy experiments. The results increase our understanding of model biomolecular condensates.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Interrogating basal ganglia circuit function in people with Parkinson’s disease and dystonia

   This article has 12 authors:

   1. Srdjan Sumarac
   2. Kiah A Spencer
   3. Leon A Steiner
   4. Conor Fearon
   5. Emily A Haniff
   6. Andrea A Kühn
   7. Mojgan Hodaie
   8. Suneil K Kalia
   9. Andres Lozano
   10. Alfonso Fasano
   11. William Duncan Hutchison
   12. Luka Milosevic

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This manuscript is a valuable study of the responses of GPi neurons to deep brain stimulation (DBS) in human Parkinson disease and dystonia patients and it finds convincing evidence for altered short-term and long-term plasticity in response to DBS between the two patient populations. This dataset is of interest to both basic and clinical researchers working in the field of DBS and movement disorders.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Evaluating Study Design Rigor in Preclinical Cardiovascular Research: A Replication Study

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Isaiah C Jimenez
   2. Gabrielle C Montenegro
   3. Keyana Zahiri
   4. Damini Patel
   5. Adrienne Mueller

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The objective of this important study is to assess the study design and rigor, enhance the quality of clinical research studies, and emphasize crucial design elements in basic science research. It specifically tackles the ongoing problem of experimental design deficiencies that obstruct the effective translation of research findings into clinical applications. This paper is particularly convincing as it highlights the lack of progress in addressing these issues over the past decade, despite a substantial body of existing research. It serves as a strong call to action for the broader scientific community to improve research practices.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Patient-derived xenografts and single-cell sequencing identifies three subtypes of tumor-reactive lymphocytes in uveal melanoma metastases

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Joakim W Karlsson
   2. Vasu R Sah
   3. Roger Olofsson Bagge
   4. Irina Kuznetsova
   5. Munir Iqba
   6. Samuel Alsen
   7. Sofia Stenqvist
   8. Alka Saxena
   9. Lars Ny
   10. Lisa M Nilsson
   11. Jonas A Nilsson

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study presents valuable findings on tumor-reactive T cells in liver metastases of uveal melanoma (UM). The authors conducted single-cell RNA sequencing to identify potential tumor-reactive T cells and used PDX models for functional analysis. The evidence supporting their claims is solid. The work will be of interest to scientists working in the field of uveal melanoma.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Senescence of endplate osteoclasts induces sensory innervation and spinal pain

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Dayu Pan
   2. Kheiria Gamal Benkato
   3. Xuequan Han
   4. Jinjian Zheng
   5. Vijay Kumar
   6. Mei Wan
   7. Junying Zheng
   8. Xu Cao

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This fundamental study advances our understanding of the role of senescent osteoclasts (SnOCs) in the pathogenesis of spine instability. The authors provide compelling evidence for the SnOCs to induce sensory nerve innervation. Accordingly, reduction of SnOCs by the senolytic drug Navitoclax markedly reduces spinal pain sensitivity. This work will be of broad interest to regenerative biologists working on spinal pain.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Post-ejaculatory inhibition of female sexual drive via heterogeneous neuronal ensembles in the medial preoptic area

   This article has 13 authors:

   1. Kentaro K Ishii
   2. Koichi Hashikawa
   3. Jane Chea
   4. Shihan Yin
   5. Rebecca Erin Fox
   6. Suyang Kan
   7. Meha Shah
   8. Zhe Charles Zhou
   9. Jovana Navarrete
   10. Alexandria D Murry
   11. Eric R Szelenyi
   12. Sam A Golden
   13. Garret D Stuber

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important work combines molecular genetics and behavioral analyses to identify inhibitory neurons in the female medial preoptic area as a neural locus that is activated following male ejaculation and whose prolonged activity plays a key role in the regulation of female sexual motivation. These experiments are rigorous and well-performed. The data are compelling and demonstrate that a subpopulation of neurons in the medial preoptic area are selectively activated following the completion of mating in females. The medial preoptic area has long been implicated as critical to sexual behavior in both sexes; however the use of a self-paced mating assay for females provides fine control over manipulating and monitoring cellular activity in this region during more naturalistic behavior. In addition, this study may act to inspire others to further explore the additional brain regions found to show upregulation of neural activity (Fos) during mating completion in females using the datasets generated here.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Causal role of the angular gyrus in insight-driven memory reconfiguration

    This article has 5 authors:

    1. Anna-Maria Grob
    2. Hendrik Heinbockel
    3. Branka Milivojevic
    4. Christian F Doeller
    5. Lars Schwabe

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife assessment

      This important paper provides solid evidence that the angular gyrus plays a role in insight-based memory updating. The study is well conducted, timely, and presents clear-cut behavioral results. While the study provides robust evidence that transcranial magnetic stimulation to the angular gyrus impacts memory, evidence for the strong claim of a causal contribution of the angular gyrus in particular – apart from other connected regions, including the hippocampus – is not conclusive.

    Reviewed by eLife